Problem 2 Solution doesn't match actual answer

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elasticdog
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:44 am

Problem 2 Solution doesn't match actual answer

Post by elasticdog »

I have already solved problem number 2, and navigating back to it's problem page should show the correct solution at the bottom, but it shows a different number completely (I can paste the incorrect number here if that's not an issue). Browsing through the forum for that problem, the correct answer has been verified. I think it may be a bug...

Is anyone else seeing this behavior?
elasticdog
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:44 am

Re: Problem 2 Solution doesn't match actual answer

Post by elasticdog »

Hmmm...looks like the actual problems were changed. I got confused after I noticed the same thing happening with problem 3. Originally, problem two was "Find the sum of all the even-valued terms in the sequence which do not exceed one million." where now you must not exceed four million. Problem three was changed in a similar manner "What is the largest prime factor of the number 317584931803?" and now the number is 600851475143. That certainly explains the differences.

When were these changed and why?!? That is confusing...
quilan
Posts: 182
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:08 pm

Re: Problem 2 Solution doesn't match actual answer

Post by quilan »

IIRC, some unscrupulous sites were posting the answers to the questions, so they changed the bounds. The algorithms would remain more or less equivalent but would only require tweaking a single number or so.
ex ~100%'er... until the gf came along.
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