BOSTON (WHDH) - There is now an answer to a decades-old puzzle that will unlock a Massachusetts Institute of Technology time capsule, all thanks to a Belgian programmer.
Almost 20 years to the day since the cryptopuzzle was made public, Bernard Fabrot was able to solve the problem by running a special program on his computer for nearly three and a half years straight.
The answer that will be used to unlock the oversized time capsule is 600 digits long and required exactly 80 trillion “simple” computations.
The puzzle does actually start off easy with two multiplied by two but, it quickly gets out of hand.
“It is a pretty simple operation. Multiply a number by itself, divide by a third number and take the remainder,” MIT professor Ron Rivest said. “That’s it that is the one operation. But, you do that over and over and over again.”
Rivest created the puzzle in 1999 when the lead computer science turned 35-years-old. So, he created a problem he thought would take the next 35 years to solve.
“So, I said, 80 trillion must be about right so that by the time you do 80 trillion of these simple operations in a row, you are done around the year 2034,” he said. “it is sort of like pulling a piece of string until you get to the end. You have just got to follow it along.
The capsule is set to be opened at a special ceremony on campus in May where the answer will be revealed.
Rivest, who thought he would be retired by the time the puzzle was solved hinted at a second puzzle.
“It is possible that we will reseal the time capsule and have a new puzzle,” he said. “I don’t know we will see.”
The professor said he had no idea anyone was working on the problem until he got Fabrot’s phone call last month.
Just 24 hours after Fabrot’s call, Rivest received word from a second group telling him they would have the answer by May 10.
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