The mathematician Andrew Suterland was able to compose a formula that made it possible to prove a long-standing assumption in the scientific community, and at the same time amusingly echoes one of the most famous absurd storylines in science fiction. The scientist found out which three numbers raised into a cube give 42 in total.

65 years ago, in 1954, it was suggested that all natural numbers from 1 to 100 can be represented as the sum of the cubes of three other numbers. For many values, the proof was found rather quickly, but by the beginning of this year, experts had not been able to find the values ​​that would give 33 and 42 in total. Not so long ago, mathematician Andrew Bouquet, representing the University of Bristol, created an algorithm with which the supercomputer managed find a solution for x ^ 3 + y ^ 3 + z ^ 3 = 33 in just three weeks. Thus, the most “tough nut" remained the number 42.

Fictitious superintelligent scientists and a real mathematician from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology went along approximately the same path - they tried again to use a supercomputer to find out the question that would answer 42. However, Andrew Suterland was more fortunate and his plan was crowned with success. Using the resources of five hundred thousand home computers of volunteers, the expert organized the calculations, which showed that the desired formula includes three seventeen-digit numbers. “The question of life, the universe and in general” together with the answer turned out to be the following: (-80538738812075974) ^ 3 + 80435758145817515 ^ 3 + 12602123297335631 ^ 3 = 42.

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