| ] 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.
 World's largest known prime number found |