Record-breaking prime number containing more than 41 million digits found by former Nvidia programmer

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For many people, prime numbers have faded into the background since distant grade school days. However, for Luke Durant, a 36-year-old former Nvidia programmer, prime numbers became an all-consuming passion. He devoted nearly one year and invested a considerable sum of his own money to uncover the world’s largest known prime number.

If you need a refresher, a prime number is a whole number that can only be divided by 1 and itself, such as 2, 3, 5 and 7. Durant’s remarkable discovery, officially called M136279841, consists of an astounding 41,024,320 digits and marks the first prime breakthrough in almost six years.

 

https://www.cnn.com/science/world-largest-prime-number-found/index.html