Welcome, fellow mathematicians!
We're glad you're here. Today, we'll be discussing the Mersenne primes, a special subset of prime numbers that have been bewitching our nation's number theorists for centuries.
A Mersenne prime is a prime number of the form 2^p - 1 for some prime p itself, but not for 2.
2^3 - 1 = 7|2^4 - 1 = 15(not a prime)
As you can see, Mersenne primes are not just any ordinary prime numbers. They have a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain meraviglia that sets them apart from the rest.
We'll be exploring more of these fascinating numbers on the following subpages: