3/14/2014

Primes Are Beautiful

1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19,23,27,31,37,41,43,47,53...
Lovely! What's not to like in those numbers?

Primes are great, because they are unique. They don't get mixed up with other, simpler, numbers.

46? Oh, how 23 and two-ish.

27? You think you've got something special...then you realize 3, 3 and 3. And 9. How common.

170141183460469231731687303715884105727

Now there's a little number you could love!
It happens to be Mersienne Prime 127 (aka 2^127 - 1), and held the largest prime record from 1876 until 1951. It will probably always be the largest prime calculated by hand.

:)

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