Daydreamer,
I think FORTRANS has already explained the essence of the matter. Here are some additional informations: The number M
82589933 = 2
82589933 - 1 is probably the
largest known prime number. That's what we know so far. It has more than 24 million decimal digits. This would then also somewhat overwhelm the REAL10 type.
The number was found within the framework of
GIMPS (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search). Mersenne prime numbers have the form M
n = 2
n - 1. They are
named after Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), a French theologian and mathematician, and are especially well suited to search for large prime numbers.
The smallest Mersenne primes are: M
2 = 2
2 - 1 = 3, M
3 = 2
3 - 1 = 7 and M
5 = 2
5 - 1 = 31. If M
82589933 passes all subsequent tests, it would be the 51st Mersenne
prime number that was found.