By last, I mean the most recently discovered prime number. What was the length of time between the discovery of the last two prime numbers?
When was the last prime number discovered?
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4Apparently they keep finding new ones @ [PrimeGrid](http://www.primegrid.com/). – 2011-08-29
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2This question may be impossible to reasonably answer depending on what you mean by "discovered," but see http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html for a start. – 2011-08-29
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0@J.M. You seem to be two steps behind the times... (-; – 2011-08-29
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7The [most recent primes](http://primes.utm.edu/primes/status.php) on the database all date from the last 72 hours, so I would say that these days the "length of time between discovery" is pretty short. – 2011-08-29
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4(corrected) According to the [Prime Database's](http://primes.utm.edu/primes/) list of [100 largest known primes](http://primes.utm.edu/primes/search.php?Number=100), the largest known prime was discovered in 2008, has 12978189 digits, and equals $2^{43112609}-1$. – 2011-08-29
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1@Arturo: not to mention primes being generated by implementations of cryptographic algorithms across the globe, some of which may be "new" by sheer luck... – 2011-08-29
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1As stated, the question is too localized and I have voted to close as such. If you change the question to something like: "Is there a resource which maintains the 'latest' prime?", then consider my close voted withdrawn. – 2011-08-29
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4I just discovered 876797689865765453447867987711 two seconds ago. – 2011-08-29
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5Personally I think that the question may not be a good one, but for people at a certain level of mathematical knowledge it is the one they ask, and the comments and answers open up a mathematical world which may be interesting and inspiring for them. The site advertises itself as catering for all mathematical abilities. I agree that a reformulated question might help, but I think there may be many high-school students who aren't aware just how quickly primes are being identified, and that fact is not, so far as I know, in any of the accessible literature. I hope a version of this is reopened. – 2011-08-29
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1OK, I'll vote to reopen. – 2011-08-30
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3Perhaps I should mention that you too can discover a new prime number. Go to http://www.wolframalpha.com/ and enter "what is the next prime number after X" where X is a random string of 30 or so digits. The result will be a prime number slightly larger than X which, with very high probability, no human eyes have ever seen before. – 2011-08-30