Mersenne primes and the bailout bill
Here’s an interesting number: $11,315,000,000,000. That’s the new limit on public debt proposed by today’s draft of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. That’s a pretty big number, slightly over (slightly?) 11 trillion dollars. Here’s another one: 243,112,609-1. The Guardian reports that researchers have found the largest-yet Mersenne prime, a number with nearly 13 […]