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State the first four Fermat Primes. What is the Mersenne primes?

User Aldana
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The 4 Fermat prime can be calculated as:

F0 = 2^(2^0) + 1 = 2+1 = 3

F1 = 2^(2^1) = 4+1 = 5

F2 = 2^(2^2) + 1 = 16+1 = 17

F3 = 2^(2^3) + 1 = 256+1 = 257

Hence the first four Fernat Primes are 3 5 17 257.



A Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two. That is, it is a prime number of the form Mn = 2^n − 1 for some integer n.

Hence first few Mersenne prime numbers are:

3, 7, 31, 127, 8191 corresponding to indices n=2, 3, 5, 7, 13

User Ylev
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