Weirdest Math Problems Ever Solved with a Calculator

Calculators are great for solving math problems, but they also reveal some of the weirdest things about numbers. You can’t imagine what types of math problems exist, and they will definitely blow your mind. Math can be weird sometimes, and when you throw a calculator into the mix, things get even crazier. But how do these problems get solved?

The answer is really simple; sometimes the calculator and sometimes mathematical formulas. In this blog, we will look at some of the most bizarre problems that are specifically solved with the calculator.

• 1 = 2 Problem
  
• Chicken McNugget Theorem
  
• The 0.999… = 1 Debate
  
• Four Color Theorem
  
• Collatz Conjecture
  
• Birthday Paradox
  
• Beal’s Conjecture

1 = 2 Problem

This one seems impossible, right? How can 1 be equal to 2? Well, some tricky algebraic manipulations can make it look that way. It is usually done by dividing it by zero, which isn’t allowed in math. But if you punch it into a calculator, it won’t warn you about the trick; it just refuses to calculate it. People have fallen for this strange math trick, but calculators know better.

Chicken McNugget Theorem

Imagine McDonald’s sells nuggets in packs of 6 and 9. You can buy 6, 9, 12, 15 nuggets… but what’s the biggest number of nuggets you can’t buy using these pack sizes? The answer is 43. If you try, you’ll realize that no combination of 6s and 9s will give you exactly 43 nuggets. This idea applies to any two numbers that don’t share a common factor (other than 1).

The 0.999… = 1 Debate

Here’s one that still confuses people. If you type 0.999999 (with an infinite number of 9s) into a calculator and keep adding more, you’ll see that it actually equals 1. Some people argue that it’s just really close to 1, but mathematically, they’re the same thing. Your calculator proves it by rounding up when you enter a long enough string of 9s.

Four Color Theorem

Take any map and start coloring the regions so that no two touching areas have the same color. No matter how complicated the map is, you’ll never need more than four colors. This sounds simple, but proving it was incredibly tough. In fact, it was one of the first big math problems solved using a computer.

Collatz Conjecture

Pick any number. If it’s even, divide it by 2. If it’s odd, multiply by 3 and add 1. Repeat this process over and over. No matter which number you start with, eventually, you’ll always end up at 1. Mathematicians have tried millions of numbers, and it always works, but no one can prove why.

 

Birthday Paradox

In a group of just 23 people, there’s a better than 50% chance that at least two share the same birthday. This sounds crazy because there are 365 days in a year, but here’s the trick: Instead of thinking about one person’s birthday, we consider all possible pairs of people. The number of comparisons adds up way faster than we expect, making the odds much higher than our intuition tells us.

Beal’s Conjecture

If A^x + B^y = C^z, and all numbers are positive integers greater than 2, then A, B, and C must have a common prime factor. It sounds like Fermat’s Last Theorem but remains unproven. There’s a $1 million prize for solving it.