Mathematician:R.E. Powers

Mathematician

American amateur mathematician who discovered the $10$th and $11$th Mersenne primes $2^{89} - 1$ (in $1911$) and $2^{107} - 1$ (in $1914$.)

In $1916$, he determined that $2^{241} - 1$ is composite.

Very little is known about R.E. Powers. He lived in Denver, Colorado from at least 1911 to 1916.

Nationality

American

History

• Born: Unknown
• Died: Unknown

Publications

• Nov. 1911: The Tenth Perfect Number (Amer. Math. Monthly Vol. 18, no. 11: pp. 195 – 197) in which $M_{89}$ is reported as being prime

• 1914: On Mersenne's Numbers (Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society Ser. 2 Vol. 13: p. xxxix) in which $M_{107}$ is reported as being prime

• 1916: Certain Composite Mersenne's Numbers

• 1934: Note on a Mersenne Number (Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. Vol. 40: p. 883) in which $M_{241}$ is reported as being composite

Sources

Chris Caldwell's website The Prime Pages.

Links to Powers' original papers.