unforum

[mupdan]

[Atrophied]

Is there any way to check if it's hard-coded to give a negative response (like the Academy Library database)?

[beglee]

dnt think anyone has suggested this before, feel free to dump a steaming pile of trouts on me if they have
the card mentions the largest known prime in 2004 is 7235733 digits long. it might be possible to take this extremely long number and encrypt/decrypt it to discover a message/question for the answer for the card.
As has been mentioned in various threads throughout this game, in the book Cryptonomicon there was a series of messages (Arethusa messages) beginning with AADAA that noone could decode. Finally, years later, someone cracks it and it turns out not to be a message but the output of a Riemann zeta function using "COMSTOCK" as the seed. Could mind candy have found a seed that generates a coherent sentence from that largest prime number?

heres a link to a page with that long prime number:
http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/prime/m24036583/prime-c-e.html

[chippy]

could be a clue, but who knows with this card....

latest firebox catalogue, on the same page as the PPC cards, right at the bottom is some text followed by a graphical depiction of how puzzling the puzzles they sell are. They range from hard through to death by puzzle! (ppc incidently has all four categories)

Anyhow the text reads

[Malinky]

For anyone who speaks math this may help.

http://www.math.purdue.edu/~branges/riemannzeta.pdf

Don't understand a word of it myself, but according to the author its proof of the Riemann hypothesis!

[beglee]

[Atrophied]

Actually, it seems that the proof will be considered valid if it's not disproved within the next two years. (One of the rules for acceptance given by Clay)

[ryandrew]

God grief, can anyone decipher this stuff, to extract an enterable answer?

[cimmerian]

OK (Takes a deep breath) Could be way off base here but…

Thinking along the lines that they can't want us to prove the Riemann Hypothesis, I tried searching on GFG (as it says this on the card not G.F.B. as pointed out in an earlier thread) Riemann and proof, this comes up with Mobius Transformation?

Is this something that can be proved?
Or am I lost?

[Hunting4Treasure]

Mobius Transformation seems to be proven here, but it all looks Greek to me! And, how are we to post an answer showing our work, when I can't even find most of those symbols in my character map?

[kertap]

Hi. I haven't had much time to do a search but I was wondering if the answer involves something that riemann proved. He was involved with an awful lot of stuff according to the wikipedia page, so maybe the answer is a proof that he created/discovered.

On a side note if it is required to enter an actual proof with all the extra lines and stuff, one possible way of entering it might be in the format used by LaTeX. Although this might be another distraction.

[JebJoya]

Ooh, ooh, ooh, I've just learnt to use LaTeX for my 2nd year essay (which I still don't know what I'm going to write about, cryptography and cryptoanalysis is rather tempting it has to be said). I really feel that there are only 2 possible solutions to this card, one being an actual proof (which obviously they are not expecting anyone to get, so it's a junk card), or there is a different puzzle hidden in this card, most likely not to do with actually proving anything. I would not think that it was asking for another of Riemann's proofs, since that is not mentioned anywhere. Has anyone tried "Of this I have found a remarkable demonstration. This margin [text box] is too narrow to contain it."

Jeb

[kertap]

What about a link to the proposed solution. When did that whole thing happen. Was it before or after the cards came out.

Also I've thought about it and using something like LaTeX doesn't seem right when there isn't even the slightest clue that that is what you are supposed to do. I'm gonna go with Jeb. We're missing something. We have to find the answer to a question we don't know yet.

[beglee]

I agree with JebJoya, theres no way they want us to actually prove this Hypothesis, the answer that you put into the solve box must surely just be made up of letters, numbers and the other characters you have on your keyboard. im thinking the answer will just be a sentence that answers a hidden question within the card, or maybe a really simple equation like "2+2=4" as the proof

This is why this card is so frustrating, as theres no way we could prove the Riemann Hypothesis, so if we cant then what the hell are we supposed to do with the card?? I dont have the card myself, but has anyone tried heat/cold/uv light or anything else you can think of that might reveal sumthin else on the card without damaging it?

[EDIT] Just read over on the perplex city forums that Beowolf has tried the usual methods of revealing stuff on this card, although he doesnt specify what exact ones, without any luck.
The more i think about this card and Shuffled, the more im agreeing with the idea that they are related to all the prime number perplex cards, the deck order for the keyed deck for Shuffled and a message made up of the big letters on those prime number cards for Riemann. Although if that is the case, how would the person who actually got the Shuffled message be able to decode it as he didnt have access to the perplex cards.

[Scott]

Have you tried Eating it?