mersenne primes are in euclid's elements in book 9 or 10 somewhere. which means that people have been wasting this nonsense for more than 2,300 years.    > is this shit just made up after a certain point? a perfect number is a number that is equal to the sum of its factors. a mersenne prime is a prime number of the form (2^p - 1) where p is another prime number. if you multiply a mersenne prime (2^p - 1) by the next lowest power of 2 (2^(p-1)) you get a perfect number. take 3 for example. 3 is mersenne (2^2-1) and 3 x 2 = 6 which is perfect (6 = 3 + 2 + 1). take 7 for example. 7 is mersenne (2^3 - 1) and 7 x 2^2 = 28 which is perfect (1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28). zero practical applications. some team spent six years on this.
Republican