> >>>> What is the smallest known odd perfect number?
> >
> > Is too! You could prove me wrong? There is a
> > (large) lower bound, and no known upper bound.
> >
> Do you have any idea about this lower bound?
At least 10^300. See section 5 of:
http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/mersenne/
> > Suppose my
> > function returns the first odd perfect number, or loops
> > forever. Do I win?
> >
> Only if you can prove that your function terminates :-P
O.K.. But I'm sure that I could produce a program that
provably terminates where it is a LOT of work to figure out what
number it terminates at. Judging your contest would not be an
easy task!
(Not that it is the best example, but consider the
smallest solution of the Diophantine equation given in
Archimedes' Cattle Problem. See the second part of:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ArchimedesCattleProblem.html
)
---David
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