42

Maybe it's just me but in the last couple of days, mathematicians have been able to solve one of life's most intractable mathematical problems and uncover the meaning of life as defined by Douglas Adams' wonderful book Life, The Universe and Everything (here is Wikipedia's note).

I feel kind of sorry that this has happened for this is a mystery of life that has been solved... by a math geek, using 100 connected PC's. This was the issue:

The original problem, set in 1954 by University of Cambridge researchers, looked for solutions of the Diophantine equation x3 + y3 + z3 = k, with k being all the numbers from one to 100. Beyond the easily found small solutions, the problem soon became intractable as the more interesting answers could not possibly be calculated, so vast were the numbers required. But slowly, over many years, each value of k was eventually solved for (or proved unsolvable), thanks to sophisticated techniques and modern computers — except the last two, the most difficult of all: 33 and 42 (read about it here).

It all seems .... a little flat. I'd have hoped for fanfares, maybe an angelic chorus or two and the Great Redeemer saying 'well done, now I've got a really tough one for you'. Or something like that. But all we got was a You Tube video.

I much prefer this answer.