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Mersenne prime
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Mersenne prime

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Written by
William L. Hosch
William L. Hosch was an editor at Encyclopædia Britannica.
William L. Hosch
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Last Updated: • Article History
Key People:
Marin Mersenne
Related Topics:
perfect number
prime
Mersenne number

Mersenne prime, in number theory, a prime number of the form 2n − 1 where n is a natural number. These primes are a subset of the Mersenne numbers, Mn. The numbers are named for the French theologian and mathematician Marin Mersenne, who asserted in the preface of Cogitata Physica-Mathematica (1644) that, for n ≤ 257, Mn is a prime number only for 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 67, 127, and 257. His list, however, contained two numbers that produce composite numbers and omitted two numbers that produce primes. The corrected list is 2, 3, 5, 7, ...(100 of 488 words)

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