Name: The Mystery of 42 is Solved - Numberphile
Uploaded: 2020-03-27T18:45:18.000Z
Duration: 5 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Minus 80538 Cubed plus 8045 Feud +12631 Cube.

And why is this significant, wise, wise, 40 people of a milestone in this field of endeavor.

So this started a computer search from way back in 1954.

They were looking for the numbers up to 100 to see which of them could be representatives of some of three cubes.

And we've now just answered that 65 years later.

Had it takes 17 digit numbers to get there.

That's why, of course, had no hope of ever finding it in 1954.

I saw you recently when you'd found 33 you used a big computer not far from here at the University of Bristol.

So we had to go another order of magnitudes beyond what I did for 33 to find this.

So I actually think the most interesting aspects this time round.

We're sociological rather than mathematical.

So, um, after the 33 news, I got lots of offers of help Had turned most down.

Actually, um, first thing I did was go straight.

He's world experts at this sort of thing.

We teamed up and, you know, modified the code team make it run in a much bigger scale.

Thea Other thing was we got a big offer of help from charity engine, so they harness the power of millions of volunteer PCs.

And that gave us a computing platform that's massive allergic than anything I could get as an academic.

So some of the people watching this video, if they're involved with charity engine, may have been involved with the discovery.

How did you find out that they've been the breakthrough?

The charity engine guys e mailed us with the solution.

Or is it really perfunctory email or just said we have a solution?

How did that feel when you saw that with you?

Just, like, jumped up and down in your underpants.

So I didn't do a jump for joy this time, but, uh, yeah, it was pretty satisfying to solve something.

You know, that's been out there for decades.

Okay, so the next number after 42 from the known representation Z 114 that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

But there's actually another number that we care about more, and that's three K equals three.

So the reason this gets ignored is there's a couple of small solutions.

Uh, well, one cubed plus one where they have to be unique.

And if you play around for a little longer, there's another one you can find.

Um, and it's four cubes plus for cubed, plus negative five cubes for Cuba to 64.

His three, a mathematician called Wardell asked in 1953.

If these are the only two solutions we still don't know, that's kind of what kicked this whole thing off.

They were hoping to find a solution for three.

Um, we're gonna throw everything we have at it, and we'll see.

But, you know, with this kind of thing, you never know.

So you're gonna throw any resource, is at 114 or is just getting silly constantly going up, up, up.

So there's another 10 below 1000 which would be the next milestone.

I think I'm ready to hang up the hat after we have a go at three.

So you'd rather get a different solution for three than the first solution for 104 times is right.

There are 10 numbers below 1000 that you haven't got.

You gonna celebrate you doing anything to celebrate?

It's my wife's birthday today, so yeah, you go to a nice present.

Um and so if we just look at the numbers up to 100 so let me say K less than or equal to 100.

The interesting thing is, for K less than 100.

We now only have two more numbers to worry about.