This sum of three cubes puzzle, first set in 1954 at the University of Cambridge and known as the Diophantine Equation x 3+y 3+z 3=k, challenged mathematicians to find solutions for numbers 1-100. That is, are there three cubes whose sum is 42? The number 42 is especially significant to fans of science fiction novelist Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, ” because that number is the answer given by a supercomputer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”īooker also wanted to know the answer to 42. A team led by Andrew Sutherland of MIT and Andrew Booker of Bristol University has solved the final piece of a famous 65-year old math puzzle with an answer for the most elusive number of all: 42.
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