The Meaning of Life

"How can you express every number between 1 and 100 as the sum of three cubes?" Or, put algebraically, how do you solve x^3 + y^3 + z^3 = k, where k equals any whole number from 1 to 100?"

fltsfshr

 

This is why we haven't solved many of the world's problems, such as a cure for cancer. Too many people doing useless calculations like this. 500,000 world computers could have collectively done something more valuable than this lol.

 

^ So true but I am not looking for math to cure cancer.

 

Think of it this way. An author writes a book. The answer to everything in it is 42. Then the real answer to the math turns out to be 42. Was Carl Jung right about Sycnhronicity after all. Let's throw the I Ching.


fltsfshr

 

If that's all true (I'm in no condition to check the math) then I would not be surprised if Mr. Adams was familiar with this little math puzzle and decided to use the answer as sort of a metaphor in Hitchhiker's Guide.

 

Well, if this quote supposedly by Adams is accurately attributed, then I stand corrected.

“The answer to this is very simple. It was a joke. It had to be a number, an ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one. Binary representations, base 13, Tibetan monks are all complete nonsense. I sat on my desk, stared in to the garden and thought 42 will do. I typed it out. End of story.”

 

^ killjoy

 

(1)^3 + (-1)^3 + (1)^3 = 1

(1)^3 + (1)^3) + (0)^3 = 2

(1)^3 + (1)^3 + (1)^3 = 3

Your turn

fltsfshr