SMBC Comics Forum

loved this one. I'm currently at the college and just three days ago I did the exam that involved Fourier Transform.
and since I'm studying IT, I wrote a (horrible and dirty and unelegant) piece of perl code to find the Fouriest transformation of any given number

http://pastebin.com/9u56wb2W

(please ignore line three, it's a joke toward a friend )

ps. it has some flaws (don't give results for just '4' and if some bases have the same amount of Fours, it will give just the lowest base)
(also I suck writing in english)

Someone made a code-golfing contest inspired by this comic here: http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/quest ... as-most-4s. There are some good responses there. And i really like the (winner at this moment) APL solution with its little explaination. It's not as bizarre as it seems! I used that language at university for a bit and man it was a fun language to program with; trying to always come up with the more succinct way to express an algorithm =D

BTW, it's the first time i observe this XKCD-ish nerdly-viral type of ramification from an SMBC comic (but most surely not the first time it happens). It's really awesome. Just as an example, a question inspired by today's XKCD comic on the "tar" Linux command also got popular on the StackExchange network, though this time on serverfault.com: http://serverfault.com/questions/474561 ... -xvfz-work.

Every number system is base 10! The number system with the most fours in it will have this many unique number symbols: x x x x x.

FUN FACT!

If x=(5^n)-1

Where n is a natural number >1

Then x is fouriest in base five.

Hock wrote:FUN FACT!

If x=(5^n)-1

Where n is a natural number >1

Then x is fouriest in base five.

I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!

Almost too much fun. I think we all ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

Apocalyptus wrote:Almost too much fun. I think we all ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

Why would I need a pill to be more stressed? This is preposterous.

A pill for relieving stress. For goodness' sake, work with me a little here Kimra.

We all know those are rohipnol.

Hey, there's nothing less stressful than losing consciousness, right?

Depends on where you wake up.

Apocalyptus wrote:Hey, there's nothing less stressful than losing consciousness, right?

No cares in the world!

ARE YOU GUYS READY FOR SUPER FUN FACTS

If a number x can be divided by 4(1+a+a^2+a^3+...a^n) for some a>4 and any n, then x is all 4's in base a.

Dude, not cool! I wasn't ready for that level of excitement, and now a blood vessel has popped in my eye.

Thanks a lot, dick.