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New Mersenne Prime discovered (probably)

(www.mersenne.org)
359 points sdsykes | 1 comments | 16 Oct 24 11:51 UTC | HN request time: 0.266s | source
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dataflow ◴[19 Oct 24 05:04 UTC] No.41885759[source]▶
Given this contest can presumably go on infinitely long, what is the ultimate point of the contest? Is there some kind of theoretical or practical benefit to discovering a new Mersenne prime?
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Jerrrrrrry ◴[19 Oct 24 06:59 UTC] No.41886159[source]▶

  >presumably go on infinitely long
prove it
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poincaredisk ◴[19 Oct 24 14:30 UTC] No.41887955[source]▶
It's well established that there are infinite prime numbers, for example https://www-users.york.ac.uk/~ss44/cyc/p/primeprf.htm
replies(1): >>41888609 #
Jerrrrrrry ◴[19 Oct 24 16:06 UTC] No.41888609[source]▶
Should be able to trivially extend that logic to Mersenne Primes then, 'presumably'
replies(2): >>41889454 #>>41907922 #
af3d ◴[21 Oct 24 20:00 UTC] No.41907922[source]▶
Yes, the Mersenne primes do indeed extend to infinity. That is due to the simple fact that perfect numbers (for which they are intimately connected to) are also known to be infinite in number.
replies(1): >>41909330 #
1. Jerrrrrrry ◴[21 Oct 24 22:40 UTC] No.41909330[source]▶
This was an instant deduction, thank you.

I tried some flavors of primes but you'd think the most intuitive one by a magnitude would be listed on the Wiki for proofs.