Mathematicians have finally figured out the three cubed numbers that add up to 42.
數學家們終於算出了三個立方數加起來是42。
This has settled a problem that has been pondered for 65 years: namely, can each of the natural numbers below 100 be expressed as the sum of three cubes?
這解決了一個思考了65年的問題：即100以下的每一個自然數都可以表示為三個立方體的和嗎？
The problem, set in 1954, is exactly what it sounds like: x3+y3+z3=k.
這個問題，設置在1954年，就像它的發音一樣：x3+y3+z3=k。
K is each of the numbers from 1 to 100; the question is, what are x, y and z?
k是從1到100的每個數字；問題是，x，y和z是什麼？
Over the following decades, solutions were found for the easier numbers.
在接下來的幾十年裡，人們為更簡單的數字找到了解決方案。
In 2000, mathematician Noam Elkies of Harvard University published an algorithm to help find the harder ones.
2000年，哈佛大學的數學家諾姆·埃爾基斯(Noam Elkies)發表了一種算法，以幫助找到更難的算法。
By 2019, just the two most difficult ones remained: 33 and 42.
到2019年，只剩下兩個最難的：33和42。
Then, after watching a YouTube video about the problem with 33 on the popular maths channel Numberphile, mathematician Andrew Booker from the University of Bristol in the UK was inspired to write a new algorithm.
然後，在流行的數學頻道Numberphile上看了YouTube上關於33的視頻後，來自英國布里斯托爾大學的數學家安德魯·布克受到啟發，寫出了一種新的算法。
He ran this through a powerful supercomputer at the university's Advanced Computing Research Centre, and got the solution for 33 after just three weeks.
他在大學高級計算研究中心的一臺強大的超級計算機上運行了這個程序，僅僅三週後，米勒就得到了33個問題的解決方案。
So, we were left with the hardest one of them all: 42.
所以，我們只剩下了其中最難的一個：42。
This proved a much more obstinate problem, so Booker enlisted the aid of fellow MIT mathematician Andrew Sutherland, an expert in massively parallel computation.
事實證明這是一個更加頑固的問題，所以布克向麻省理工學院的數學家安德魯·薩瑟蘭(Andrew Sutherland)尋求幫助，後者是大規模並行計算方面的專家。
As you already know from the headline of this article, they figured it out.
正如你從這篇文章的標題中已經知道的，他們發現了這一點。
They also did a fun reveal of their success: according to The Aperiodical, both mathematicians quietly changed their personal websites to the solution, and named the pages "Life, the Universe, and Everything", a fitting nod to Douglas Adams.
他們還有趣地展示了他們的成功：據“每日郵報”報道，兩位數學家都悄悄地將他們的個人網站改成了這個解決方案，並將頁面命名為“生活，宇宙和一切”，這是對道格拉斯·亞當斯的一個合適的點頭。
Of course, it wasn't simple.
當然，這並不簡單。
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