While there are technically infinite prime numbers, it’s difficult to find new ones, as they appear in a number line with no pattern. (Currently, the largest known prime number is more than 41 ...

These numbers, which are only divisible by 1 and themselves, form the atoms of number theory, so to speak, and have fascinated humankind for thousands of years.

For instance, the largest known prime number, which is 2 136279841 − 1, is 41,024,320 digits long. At first, that number may seem mind-bogglingly large.

Around 300 B.C.E., the Greek mathematician and logician Euclid proved that there are infinitely many prime numbers. Euclid began by assuming that there is a finite number of primes.