Largest known prime number in the world discovered by GIMPS in Missouri

The Verge ^ | January 20, 2016 | James Vincent

[C19fan]

The largest prime number in the world has been discovered in Missouri by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search project, better known as GIMPS. The record breaking number — which, like all primes, can only be divided by itself and one — is a staggering 22 million digits in length. That's 5 million digits longer than the previous record-holder, which was also discovered by GIMPS back in January 2013. If you really want to know, the new biggest Prime in the world starts with a "3" and ends with a "1."

[C19fan]

If you want you can download the software and add your computing power to the quest.

[Scrambler Bob]

I know there is a larger prime number.

[ShadowAce]

...the new biggest Prime in the world starts with a "3" and ends with a "1."

Pi?

[lee martell]

Strange that they would use an acronym that was an old fashioned slang term for a crippled person “GIMPS”. Nobody caught it, I suppose.

[rlmorel]

“Bring out the Gimp(s)...”

[Mr Apple]

I know there is a larger prime number.

I do too.

[Sgt_Schultze]

I knew it was an odd number.

[Calvin Locke]

Yeah, but there is General Image Manipulation Program that's been around for a while, too.

[Psalm 73]

"...the new biggest Prime in the world starts with a "3" and ends with a "1.""

Hmm, doesn't end with an even number - go figure....

[Pilgrim's Progress]

Could I use it for my password?

[Jack Hydrazine]

Moe the Gimp

[BBB333]

“Pi?”

Uh, no.

Comedy depends upon some basis in fact...Pi has no end...

A for effort though!

[strings6459]

And is not a whole number multiple of 1.

[IronJack]

the new biggest Prime in the world starts with a "3" and ends with a "1."

It was pretty much a cinch that it didn't end in 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 0.

[Swordmaker]

Pi?

Pi isn't an integer. To be a prime, only integers are considered to be candidates.

[dfwgator]

42

[ShadowAce]

Even though I failed, at least someone recognized the attempt at humor!

[Louis Foxwell]

41 or 43 are better candidates.

[Delta 21]

Shows what you know.

[Swordmaker]

Could I use it for my password?

You could. . . but at the rate of entering three characters every second, it would take you approximately 84 days and 21 hours to type in your password every time you wanted to log on to where ever you were using that as your password. Just think how frustrating that would be if you dropped a character in the middle of setting it up during entering the second one to match the first entered one, and got to the end, and it says "Passwords don't match, Please try again."