# New largest prime number **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 24, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144 "2024-10-24T12:12:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/1 "2024-10-24T12:12:34Z")
Ran across this on youtube - a new largest known prime number was recently found: 2^{136,279,841} -1 Last big number was in 2018 – long gap. > **[New largest prime number found! See all 41,024,320 digits.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyGRDrDfbI%2F)** > > 2^136,279,841 - 1 has 41,024,320 digits and is prime! Read all about the new largest prime number ever found: https://www.mersenne.org/primes/?press=M1362798... Brian “Math doesn’t take a holiday” ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/2 "2024-10-24T12:54:42Z")
My mind boggles when I consider that the infinity of prime numbers is quite a bit smaller than the infinity of all numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/3 "2024-10-24T12:58:30Z")
My mind boggles instead when I consider the infinity of prime numbers is not smaller than the infinity of all whole numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/4 "2024-10-24T13:00:51Z")
My mind boggles when I consider that there infinities that are greater than other infinities. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/5 "2024-10-24T18:43:17Z")
Did Cantor understand infinity because he was crazy? Or did he go crazy when he understood infinity? ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/6 "2024-10-24T18:56:32Z")
I believe that Cantor went crazy when his ideas about infinity (see posts #3 and #4 in this thread) were rejected by his coetaneous mathematicians, who ridiculed him and did not take him seriously. I am not sure he understood infinity. I am not sure anyone understands infinity. But he understood it better than them. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/7 "2024-10-24T19:02:15Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I am not sure he understood infinity. I am not sure anyone understands infinity. But he understood it better than them. Like Feynman’s statement that anyone that claiming to know quantum mechanics doesn’t know quantum mechanics. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2024, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/8 "2024-10-24T21:03:18Z")
I mentioned this in the interesting random fact thread a few days ago. I forgot to mention that this also automatically means there’s another [perfect number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_number) (even, of course). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/9 "2024-10-25T01:49:26Z")
So what’s the largest known non-Mersenne prime? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-largest-prime-number/1009144/10 "2024-10-25T02:06:45Z")
According to [this](https://t5k.org/primes/search.php?Number=100), the 7 largest known primes are Mersenne primes. The eighth, the largest non-Mersenne prime, is 516693^{2097152}-516693^{1048576}+1. It has almost 12 million decimal digits, almost 1/3 as many digits as the new Mersenne prime.