Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Mathematicians Solve 'Trillion Triangle' Problem

The 3-4-5 triangle has area 6.
(Credit: Image courtesy of American Institute of Mathematics)


From Science Daily:

Mathematicians from North America, Europe, Australia, and South America have resolved the first one trillion cases of an ancient mathematics problem. The advance was made possible by a clever technique for multiplying large numbers. The numbers involved are so enormous that if their digits were written out by hand they would stretch to the moon and back. The biggest challenge was that these numbers could not even fit into the main memory of the available computers, so the researchers had to make extensive use of the computers' hard drives.

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