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Mersenne number
A number of the form 2n - 1 (one less than a power of 2), where n is a positive integer. Mersenne numbers are named after Marin Mersenne who wrote about them in his Cogita Physica-Mathematica (1644) and wrongly conjectured that they were prime for n = 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31, 67, and 257, and composite for n > 257.
Related entry
• Mersenne prime
Related categories
• TYPES OF NUMBERS
• MATHEMATICS
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