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Life, the Universe, and Math: 42 Proven to be the Sum of 3 Cubes

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

MrPlow writes:

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, Interesting) by martyb on Saturday September 14 2019, @10:06AM

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday September 14 2019, @10:06AM (#894022) Journal

    Why didn't the summary simply include the three cubes? Even within a spoiler tag.

    Although my previous reply was somewhat facetious, it wasn't entirely. Using the arbitrary precision Unix dc "Desk Calculator" utility that employs postfix notation (aka RPN: Reverse-Polish Notation), and specifying 60 significant digits

    dc -e '60k _80538738812075974 3 ^  80435758145817515 3 ^   12602123297335631 3 ^ f  + + f'
    which outputs:
    2001387454481788542313426390100466780457779044591
    520412211582497361738652718463552780369306583065875
    -522413599036979150280966144853653247149764362110424
    42
    Q.E.D.

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    Wit is intellect, dancing.
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