Monthly Archives: September 2008

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 […]

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