It’s the largest math proof. A supercomputer solved it in just 2 days. And it’s 200 terabytes.
Yes, 200 terabytes. That’s the size of the file containing the computer-assisted proof for a mathematical problem that has boggled mathematicians for decades—known as Boolean Pythagorean triples problem.
The proof was compressed into a 68-gigabyte file, meaning anyone who wants to can download, reconstruct, and verify all the information embedded onto it. And individuals can do so, if they have the space processor time, in just about 30,000 hours.
The 200 terabyte file ultimately beats a previously established record for the largest-ever computer-assisted proof. It had a size of just 13 gigabytes.
PROBLEM BEHIND THE PROOF
According to Ronald Graham, a University of California, San Diego mathematician and previous record-holder of the then biggest proof, having computers assist in creating proofs for combinatorics problems is quite common. He even offered a prize of US$100 to anyone who could solve it.
As previously mentioned, the 200-terabyte proof solved a combinatorics type of mathematical problem called the Boolean Pythagorean triples. It asks whether each positive integers can be colored either red or blue, so that a combination of three integers a, b, and c, (Pythagorean Triple) can satisfy the Pythagorean equation, a 2 + b 2 =c 2, wherein none of the integers have the same color.
