We all know that a prime number is a natural number greater than one, and doesn’t have positive divisors other than one and itself, but what is the largest-known prime number? An American researcher has nonplussed every with a mind-bending discovery of the largest-known prime number.

According to the researcher, Dr. Curtis Cooper from the University of Central Missouri, the digit is (274207281)-1. The newly found number is about 22 million digits long. Cooper said the digit is so that it may take some days just to read it if written on papers. The researcher conducted the new experiment with the help of volunteers, who started a collaborative project and used called GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search) to discover prime numbers.

Most of us remember prime numbers less than 100. These are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89 and 97. Many of the primes are linked to good and bad superstitions. The digit 13 is always considered as an unlucky number. There are many hotels and buildings around the world where floor number 13 or room number 13 is not available.

Mathematicians and researchers around the globe have been trying to find patterns in prime numbers since thousands of years. They have already found many patterns, but most of them are still undiscovered.

As prime numbers are strange and curious, mathematicians are always attracted to them. There are many examples which make primes stranger. For example, there is no prime between 370,261 and 370,373, or between 20,831,323 and 20,831,533. While the prime digits like 13,331, 15,551, 16,661, 19,991 and 72,227 and 1,777,771 are considered palindromic numbers as they remain the same when the digits are reversed.