Mersenne Number whose Index is Mersenne Prime/Historical Note
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Historical Note on Mersenne Number whose Index is Mersenne Prime
According to David Wells, in his Curious and Interesting Numbers, 2nd ed. of $1997$, this conjecture was made by Eugène Charles Catalan.
The composite nature of $2^{8191} - 1$ was reported on by Raphael Mitchel Robinson in $1954$, in an article in the Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society:
- The corresponding Mersenne number was actually tested in $1953$ by D.J. Wheeler on the Illiac, at the University of Illinois, one hundred hours of machine time being required.
Sources
- Oct. 1954: Raphael M. Robinson: Mersenne and Fermat Numbers (Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. Vol. 5, no. 5: pp. 842 – 846) www.jstor.org/stable/2031878
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $2^{8191} - 1$
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $2^{8191} - 1$