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:
“And when all bodies meet
In Lethe to be drowned,
Then only numbers sweet
With endless life are crowned.”
—Robert Herrick (1591–1674)
“The one-eyed man will be King in the country of the blind only if he arrives there in full possession of his partial faculties—that is, providing he is perfectly aware of the precise nature of sight and does not confuse it with second sight ... nor with madness.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)