[SunkenCiv]

Solved: sum that adds up to a big zero
by Patrick Foster
March 19, 2007

Professor Adams believes it may help to explain some problems facing physicists. "Amazingly, E8 comes up in physics — in string theory. Some physicists believe that plays a fundamental role in explaining the theory of matter. It may be that some day this calculation can help physicists to understand the universe." ...In the end a supercomputer, Sage, at the University of Washington, took 77 hours to compute the answer.

...and the answer was '42'. Hey, someone was bound to say it.

[Daffynition]

Heh. You beat me to it ... first thing that came to mind too.

The sheer volume of data involved was a problem.

It took two years to program the formula into a computer, then a further year to find a computer powerful enough to do the calculations.

In the end, a supercomputer, Sage, at the University of Washington, took 77 hours to compute the answer.