mersenne primes have a close connection to perfect numbers, which are numbers equal to the sum of their proper divisors. historically, the study of mersenne primes was motivated by this connection; in the 4th century bc euclid demonstrated that if "m" is a mersenne prime then "m"("m"+1)/2 is a perfect number. in the 18th century, leonhard euler proved that all even perfect numbers have this form. no odd perfect numbers are known, and it is suspected that none exist (if it exist, it would have to be greater than 101500).