Despite its incredible length, the new winner is only divisible by one and itself. It is the last in a series started in the 17th century.e century by a French mathematician monk.
The largest known prime number is now 41 million digits long. Despite its length, there is no way to cut it into “bricks” of equal size (except into bricks of 1!). This is what mathematicians mean when they say it is only divisible by 1 or itself, the definition of a “prime” number.
It is obviously difficult to imagine such a long number, let alone what it represents. We are far beyond our imagination. Figuring out its length is in itself a challenge. If we wrote each number on a thin strip, leaving 5 mm for each character, it would measure… more than 200 km long! If it is estimated that a 250-page paperback book contains approximately 500,000 characters, it would take 80 to write it in full. Or a good library shelf.
Another way of looking at things: by displaying 25 pages of 4000…
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