Math · 2
What term describes prime numbers of the form 2^p − 1, named after the 17th-century French friar who cataloged them?
Answer
Mersenne primes
Marin Mersenne studied numbers of the form 2^p − 1 and published a list of exponents he believed produced primes, giving his name to this class of numbers.
💡 Did you know?
Marin Mersenne claimed in 1644 that 2^p-1 was prime for only 8 values under 257, but he was wrong about at least 5 of them—a mistake stood for centuries.
Other options people guess
- Fermat primes
- Sophie Germain primes
- Wilson primes
Topics
- primes
- history-of-math
- mersenne
- number-theory
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