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+--- Thread: The answer is 42, but the question has been puzzling mathematicians since 1954 (/showthread.php?tid=232111)
The answer is 42, but the question has been puzzling mathematicians since 1954 - hal - 09-09-2019
Believe it or not, this post has NOTHING to do with Douglass Adams.
http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/mathematics/sum-three-cubes-problem-number-42-07576.html
The original problem, set in 1954 by University of Cambridge researchers, looked for solutions of the Diophantine equation x3 + y3 + z3 = k, with k being all the numbers from one to 100.
Beyond the easily found small solutions, the problem soon became intractable as the more interesting answers could not possibly be calculated, so vast were the numbers required.
But slowly, over many years, each value of k was eventually solved for (or proved unsolvable), thanks to sophisticated techniques and modern computers — except the last two, the most difficult of all: 33 and 42.
Fast forward to 2019 and Professor Booker’s mathematical ingenuity plus weeks on a supercomputer finally found an answer for 33.
However, solving 42 was another level of complexity.
the answer: (-80538738812075974)3 + 804357581458175153+ 126021232973356313 = 42
Re: The answer is 42, but the question has been puzzling mathematicians since 1954 - pdq - 09-09-2019
You’re not going to like it...