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General Science, Mathematics, and Technology

Numbers

What is a perfect number?

A perfect number is a number equal to the sum of all its proper divisors (divisors smaller than the number) including 1. The number 6 is the smallest perfect number; the sum of its divisors 1, 2, and 3 equals 6. The next three perfect numbers are 28, 496, and 8,126. No odd perfect numbers are known. The largest known perfect number is

It was discovered in 2001.