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Why 42 is NOT the answer to life, the universe and everything Login/Join 
Baroque Bloke
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posted
Whew! Glad that this question is settled.

“The number 42 is, famously, the answer to the question of life, the universe and everything in the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.

But while the late author Douglas Adams always insisted he chose the number at random for his science fiction novel series, 42 has actually been perplexing mathematicians for decades.

Until now, it remained the last elusive link in a maths problem known as the Diophantian equation.

The question perplexing mathematicians was this: can you make all the numbers [positive integers] up to 100 from the sum of three cubes?

This is expressed, in mathematical notation, as k = x(cubed) + y(cubed) + z(cubed).

Named after Diophantes, the Greek father of Algebra, the original problem was set in 1954 at Cambridge University.

Some numbers are easy – for example, the number 29 can be written as 3³ + 1³ + 1³ (27 + 1 + 1). Others, for instance 4, 5, 13 and 14, have been proven to have no solution.

But 42 had remained elusive, with neither a solution nor proof that it has no solution.

Now a team led by the University of Bristol and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have cracked it.

Professor Andrew Booker enlisted the help of MIT maths professor Andrew Sutherland, and they used Charity Engine – which uses power from more than 500,000 home computers while they are lying idle.

The answer, which took over a million hours of calculating to prove, is as follows: X = -80538738812075974, Y = 80435758145817515 and Z = 12602123297335631. …”

https://mol.im/a/7441507



Serious about crackers
 
Posts: 8854 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Official Space Nerd
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quote:
The answer, which took over a million hours of calculating to prove,... <snip>


Well, did you expect the answer to life, the universe, and everything to come easy? . . .



Fear God and Dread Nought
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Jacky Fisher
 
Posts: 21821 | Location: Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth | Registered: September 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Unflappable Enginerd
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What do they have to say about the Star Trek 47 references? Wink


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Posts: 6192 | Location: Headland, AL | Registered: April 19, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost
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But what is the question?



ACCU-STRUT FOR MINI-14
"First, Eyes."
 
Posts: 16266 | Location: SF Bay Area | Registered: December 11, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
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How many roads must a man walk down. Duh


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It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can't be enforced weakens all other laws.
 
Posts: 4357 | Location: Tampa | Registered: August 19, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hop head
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Charity Engine created it's own version of Deep Thought?



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Posts: 10410 | Location: Beach VA,not VA Beach | Registered: July 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Conservative Behind
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49




I found what you said riveting.
 
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Now in Florida
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I thought the meaning of life could be found in these numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42
 
Posts: 6061 | Location: FL | Registered: March 09, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Thank you
Very little
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Posts: 23244 | Location: Florida | Registered: November 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Lost
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quote:
Originally posted by ChicagoSigMan:
I thought the meaning of life could be found in these numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42

IC what you did thar.



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"First, Eyes."
 
Posts: 16266 | Location: SF Bay Area | Registered: December 11, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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