mccluske (08/15/82)
Has there been any interest lately in the 4 4's problem? You know, the one where you use exactly 4 4's and any other mathematical symbols to form integers, e.g. (sqr(.4...)+4!+4!)/sqr(.4...) = 73 Martin Gardner mentioned this problem in Mathematical Games several years ago. I am wondering what elegant computer methods have been found to come up with an expression, given a particular integer.
kiessig (09/21/82)
#R:wivax:-15300:fortune:6200001:000:301 fortune!kiessig Aug 19 13:04:00 1982 Boy, this brings back memories. I can remember sitting around for days in 1969 writing out by hand pages and pages of four 4's equations. Is there a proof somewhere that states whether or not it is possible to get any arbitrary integer from four 4's? It would seem like a toughy.... Rick Kiessig