Re:Ridiculous Math Problems
by dan-robertson on Sunday July 05, 2020 @12:09PM
(#23739690)
A ridiculous problem I remember seeing was approximately this one:
I think it probably used random symbols instead of letters and didn’t have the integer requirement. Indeed if you allow real numbers or 0 then it is easy to find a solution. I think it didn’t go particularly viral because it was too hard. I think there’s a slightly easier version if you replace 896 by 16.
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Re:Ridiculous Math Problems
by contravariant on Sunday July 05, 2020 @12:11PM
(#23739712)
The version I first saw used '4' instead of '896'. Which frankly made the answer large enough that no reasonable amount of brute force could find it.
A good write up can be found here: https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-find-the-positive-integer-s...
That is an amazing, detailed explanation. (Don't be fooled by the quora location.) Spoilers: the solution to the equation is 80-digit numbers, which can be obtained by using elliptic curves, which the link explains in detail.