Math

Hardest math problem you know?

  • Other

    Votes: 3 30.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 7 70.0%
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8217398473012875491823742893156189742^8919873249187102

All by hand

No calculators

no computers 

 
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3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14^3.14+10.5

 
Does it have to have actually been done by you or even proven to be doable?

yes by me: Eh, probably something on a Calc BC test.

if no, but proven: Prove a^n+b^n=/=c^n where a,b,c are all integers and n>2 (Fermat's last theorem) or Modular theorem

if no and not proven: prove Goldbach Conjecture( every number is the sum of 3 primes)

 
Pretty much anything from DEQ,

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Okay, it's not really math, and not even that tough. But just showing that at higher levels, you have to be able to read math and explain why this formula is bad, and propose something better.

Context: It's a image processing exam, 3 hours, worth about 5 marks out of 100. Meaning there are 20 questions like this and 10 minutes to solve each.

So this goes on the easy side of an engineering spectrum and isn't something impractical like "prove 0 > infinity" lol.

 
I was watching a special on the evolution of maths on Netflix and an Indian mathematician's theory was that as because 1 divided by increasingly small positive numbers and decimals, that one divided by the smallest value known to him at that time, 0, had to be an infinitely large and unattainable number. Therefore, he concluded that 1/0, logically, had to be  ∞

It is related to the "poll" but isn't exactly a math problem. I just thought it was an interesting bit of mathematics history. 1/0 isn't undefined, 1/0= ∞ !!!!!

Here is my source for the counter-arguments which are all correct: https://www.quora.com/Is-1-0-infinity

 
Patrick MacFarlane said:
It is related to the "poll" but isn't exactly a math problem. I just thought it was an interesting bit of mathematics history. 1/0 isn't undefined, 1/0= ∞ !!!!!
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limit as x approaches zero of the function 1/x is infinity. However dividing by zero is an illegal mathematics operation. So technically correct, however doing such an action is invalid, so dq.

 
japan77 said:
limit as x approaches zero of the function 1/x is infinity. However dividing by zero is an illegal mathematics operation. So technically correct, however doing such an action is invalid, so dq.
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Oh, I know. I'm failing calculus, remember? :P  

I just thought it was cool to see this explanation:

Division should be an operation inverse to multiplication, that is, it should satisfy

           xy=z  if and only if  x=z/y

So long as y is not 0, that works. That is to say, given any number z and any nonzero number y, there is one and only one number x such that xy=z, and that number is denoted z/y.

But that doesn't work when y equals 0. It is not the case for any number z that there is one and only one number x such that x0=z.  

If z=1, as in this question, in order for 1/0 to exist, it is required that there is  one and only one number x such that x0=1.  But there are no such xx because x0=0, not 1.

So 1/0 cannot be a number.
Click to expand...

 
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