←back to thread

Ask HN: What hard problems are still underexplored?

17 points brihati | 3 comments | 11 Dec 25 06:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.529s | source

Problem with ambiguous boundaries, messy constraints and no linear path to a solution
1. webglfan ◴[11 Dec 25 07:36 UTC] No.46228673[source]▶
I'll give you one: "Do any odd perfect numbers exist?"

You can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_number#Odd_perfect_num...

You can watch a short documentary about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrv1EDIqHkY

replies(2): >>46230125 #>>46232216 #
2. brihati ◴[11 Dec 25 11:33 UTC] No.46230125[source]▶
Is 2+2 still 4 :p
3. gnatman ◴[11 Dec 25 15:01 UTC] No.46232216[source]▶
Wonderful quote in there from James Joseph Sylvester:

>>... a prolonged meditation on the subject has satisfied me that the existence of any one such [odd perfect number] —its escape, so to say, from the complex web of conditions which hem it in on all sides— would be little short of a miracle.