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posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 13 2019, @08:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the for-all-values-of-everything<113 dept.

Submitted via IRC for chopchop1

The problem of 42 — at least as it relates to whether the number could be considered the sum of three cubes — has finally been solved. The question of whether every number under 100 could be expressed in this fashion has been a long-standing puzzle in the world of mathematics. Now, two mathematicians, Andrew Sutherland of MIT and Andrew Booker of Bristol, have jointly proven that 42 is indeed the sum of three cubes.

In the equation x3+y3+z3 = k, let x = -80538738812075974, y = 80435758145817515, and z = 12602123297335631. Plug it all in, and you get (-80538738812075974)3 + 804357581458175153 + 126021232973356313 = 42.

Source: https://www.extremetech.com/computing/298112-life-the-universe-and-math-42-proven-to-be-the-sum-of-3-cubes


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday September 13 2019, @09:01PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 13 2019, @09:01PM (#893851) Journal

    These are not the same cubes that come out of wombats.

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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