] The number, rendered in exponential shorthand, is ] 2^(25,964,951)-1. It has 7,816,230 digits, and if printed in ] its entirety, would fill 235 newspaper pages. ] ] In addition, it falls in a rare category of primes known ] as Mersenne primes, which can be written as 2n-1 where n ] is also prime. ] ] The first few Mersenne primes are easily verifiable -- ] inserting 2, 3 and 5 for n produces 3, 7 and 31, all ] prime -- but the math quickly becomes overwhelming for ] larger values. |