Mersenne Numbers in Nature and Elsewhere
In computer science, unsigned p-bit integers can be used to express numbers up to Mp. Signed p+1-bit integers can express values between -Mp and Mp.
In the mathematical problem Tower of Hanoi, solving a puzzle with a p-disc tower requires Mp steps, assuming no mistakes are made.
The asteroid with minor planet number 8191 is named 8191 Mersenne after Marin Mersenne, because 8191 is a Mersenne prime (3 Juno, 7 Iris, 31 Euphrosyne and 127 Johanna having been discovered and named during the nineteenth century).
Read more about this topic: Mersenne Prime
Famous quotes containing the words numbers and/or nature:
“The forward Youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the Shadows sing
His Numbers languishing.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
“It is in the nature of allegory, as opposed to symbolism, to beg the question of absolute reality. The allegorist avails himself of a formal correspondence between “ideas” and “things,” both of which he assumes as given; he need not inquire whether either sphere is “real” or whether, in the final analysis, reality consists in their interaction.”
—Charles, Jr. Feidelson, U.S. educator, critic. Symbolism and American Literature, ch. 1, University of Chicago Press (1953)