Bits and Beyond ...

MARSENNE'S PRIME

Prime numbers are positive integers greater than one with no factors other than one and themselves.  They include 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 ...  With the exception of two, all the prime numbers are odd numbers.  Prime numbers of the form 2ⁿ-1 are called Marsenne's Prime.  Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) was a French monk who showed that the numbers 2ⁿ-1 were prime for n=2, 3, 5, 6, 13, 17, 19, 31, 67, 127 and 257.