this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2024

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I just ask my problem bro...chill.... (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/programmer_humor

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm clearly not understanding the problem, because I think the only answer is 14!. What am I getting wrong?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The question is about "superpermutations". The permutations of 1 and 2 are "12" and "21". A "superpermutation" would be "1221". It contains the numbers 1 and 2 as well as all permutations of 1 and 2. However "121" is also a superpermutation of 1 and 2. It also contains "12" and "21" and it's shorter than "1221".

The problem is finding the shortest superpermutation. Stand-up Maths has a video where he interviews a mathematician that published Anonymous' solution. So yes, there is a math paper where the main author is "Anonymous 4chan Poster".