ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Catalan–Mersenne number

Okay kiddo, sit tight because I'm going to explain a little something called the Catalan-Mersenne number.

Firstly, a number is just a way to count how many things there are. Like if you have 4 apples, you can say that you have the number 4.

Now, there are some special numbers called prime numbers. These are numbers that can only be divided by 1 and itself, like the number 3 - you can only divide it by 1 and 3.

One type of prime number is called a Mersenne prime. These are prime numbers that can be written in a special way, like 2^n - 1. For example, if n=2 then 2^n-1 is 3, which is a Mersenne prime.

The Catalan-Mersenne number is a type of Mersenne prime that was discovered by a mathematician named Eugene Catalan. It's a Mersenne prime where n is also a Mersenne prime. So the number is written as 2^(2^p - 1) - 1, where p is a Mersenne prime.

This type of number is very rare and very large. In fact, the largest known prime number as of now (2021) is a Mersenne prime that has over 23 million digits!

So there you have it, little one. The Catalan-Mersenne number is a special type of prime number that involves using Mersenne primes in a certain way. It's very big and very cool, and mathematicians love to study them.