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June 27, 2023 22:15
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Counterexample to Euler's conjecture on sums of powers
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""" | |
In 1769, Euler conjectured that it was impossible to express an nth power as the sum of fewer than | |
n nth powers of positive integers. For example, the sum of two cubes is not a cube, the sum of three | |
fourth powers is not a fourth power, and so on. | |
In 1966, L. J. Lander and T. R. Parkin found a counterexample: 27^5 + 84^5 + 110^5 + 133^5 = 144^5. | |
They performed a computer search using a CDC 6600. This was a massive computation for its time, but | |
it's easy for modern computers. | |
The following Python script searches for positive integer solutions to a^5 + b^5 + c^5 + d^5 = e^5 | |
where a, b, c, d are less than 200. It should run in under a minute. | |
""" | |
from itertools import combinations_with_replacement | |
for a, b, c, d in combinations_with_replacement(range(1, 200), 4): | |
s = (a ** 5) + (b ** 5) + (c ** 5) + (d ** 5) | |
e = round(s ** 0.2) | |
if e ** 5 == s: | |
print(f"{a}^5 + {b}^5 + {c}^5 + {d}^5 = {e}^5") |
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