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| Huge new prime number discovered | Huge new prime number discovered |
| (1 day later) | |
| Mathematicians in California could be in line for a $100,000 prize (£54,000) for finding a new prime number which has nearly 13 million digits. | |
| Prime numbers can be divided only by themselves and one. | Prime numbers can be divided only by themselves and one. |
| The prize was set up by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to promote co-operative computing on the Internet. | The prize was set up by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to promote co-operative computing on the Internet. |
| The team from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found the new number by linking 75 computers and harnessing their unused power. | The team from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found the new number by linking 75 computers and harnessing their unused power. |
| This enabled them to perform the enormous number of calculations needed to find and verify a new prime. | This enabled them to perform the enormous number of calculations needed to find and verify a new prime. |
| Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds Edson Smith UCLA | Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds Edson Smith UCLA |
| Thousands of people around the world linked the powers of their personal computers in the search for a higher "Mersenne" prime number - named after 17th Century French mathematician Marin Mersenne. | |
| Mersenne primes are expressed as two to the power of P, minus one - with P being itself a prime number. | Mersenne primes are expressed as two to the power of P, minus one - with P being itself a prime number. |
| Edson Smith, the leader of the winning UCLA team, told the Associated Press news agency: "We're delighted. Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds." | Edson Smith, the leader of the winning UCLA team, told the Associated Press news agency: "We're delighted. Now we're looking for the next one, despite the odds." |