The Haruhi problem

Get out your graphing calculators, because today's episode of Endless Thread is about a math problem.

Specifically: wt(π1, . . . , πm) = m−1 ∑ i=1 wt(πi , πi+1)

Now, pencils down. Stumped? So were mathematicians for decades. That is, until the equation was solved in a thread on 4Chan about watching the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Show notes:

• A lower bound on the length of the shortest superpattern (oeis.org/A180632/a180632.pdf) (oeis.org)

• Sa-Shi-Su-Se-So: The Secret of Japanese Cooking Basics (umami-insider.com/blogs/blog/sa-shi-su-se-so-t…) (Umami Insider)

This content was originally created for audio. An auto-generated transcript is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.