KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Researchers at a Missouri university have identified the largest known prime number, officials said Tuesday.
The team at Central Missouri State University, led by associate dean Steven Boone and mathematics professor Curtis Cooper, found it in mid-December after programming 700 computers years ago.
A prime number is a positive number divisible by only itself and 1 — 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and so on.
The number that the team found is 9.1 million digits long. It is a Mersenne prime known as M30402457 – that’s 2 to the 30,402,457th power minus 1.
Mersenne primes are a special category expressed as 2 to the “p” power minus 1, in which “p” also is a prime number.
“We’re super excited,” said Boone, a chemistry professor. “We’ve been looking for such a number for a long time.”
D.C.: Marion Barry robbed at home
Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint at his apartment by some youths who had helped him carry his groceries. Barry, who wasn’t injured in the Monday night robbery, said he gave the youths a couple of dollars for helping unload groceries from his car, and they left. They returned, however, and after Barry let them into his apartment, they pointed a gun at his head and took his wallet, which contained cash and credit cards, Barry told WRC-TV.
U.S. warns Iran on nuclear research
The United States warned Iran against pursuing new nuclear research Tuesday, rejecting assurances that the work was not a cover for a secret drive to build a nuclear bomb. Iran told the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Tuesday it planned to resume nuclear fuel research after a 21/2-year hiatus, a vague declaration that was taken in the West as fresh evidence Tehran was trying to build an atomic weapon. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization was not specific about what research or development activities it will undertake, but said the work will be unrelated to nuclear fuel production.
North Korea sanctions will remain
The Bush administration on Tuesday rejected a North Korean demand that it lift sanctions as a way of possibly resuming stalled nuclear disarmament talks. The two issues are unrelated, a State Department spokesman said. The sanctions were imposed for alleged currency counterfeiting and other illegal activities.
N.Y.: Horse spooks, crashes into car
A horse pulling a carriage bolted through blocks of traffic in midtown Manhattan and crashed into a car, injuring the carriage driver and two people in the car. The horse ended up wrapped around a Nissan station wagon late Monday, its rear legs on top of the vehicle and its head on the ground. The windshield of the car was smashed and the carriage was mangled, witness Philip Emran said. The carriage driver was listed in critical condition Tuesday. Police did not release his name. The men in the station wagon were hospitalized in stable condition, police said. The horse was taken away bucking and kicking in a police wagon, but was later euthanized because of its injuries.
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