
The Brick Factory Problem (2013) - CarolineW
http://mappingignorance.org/2013/08/13/the-fascinating-history-of-the-brick-factory-problem/
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scentoni
From a followup post "Progress checking Zarankiewicz’s conjecture on the brick
factory problem" [[http://mappingignorance.org/2013/10/01/progress-checking-
zar...](http://mappingignorance.org/2013/10/01/progress-checking-
zarankiewiczs-conjecture-on-the-brick-factory-problem/)]

"This means that N_0(5) \approx 6\cdot 10^{1228} , a really big number. The
fastest computers today perform in the order of petaFLOPS (10^{15} operations
per second), so even if they could check each case in a single operation, it
would take in the order of 10^{1204} years to check if the conjecture holds
for K_{5,n} with all n\leq N_0 ."

~~~
mannykannot
I guess the tangle of cables behind my desk isn't going to improve anytime
soon, then.

