[Tutor] OverflowError in lucky numbers script

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 10:01:33PM +0000, Alan Gauld wrote:

> Just to be clear this has nothing to do with Python. It doesn't matter 
> what programming language you choose there is not a PC on Earth that can 
> do what you want using the technique you are using in 16 seconds.

I don't believe that you could do it with the fastest supercomputer on 
earth. If you have to test 10**18 numbers in 16/10**5 seconds, that 
gives you less than 0.0000000000002 nanoseconds per test.

This isn't a question of tweaking the code to make it run faster, you 
need a fundamentally different approach to the problem, as Alan says. 
Either that, or we have completely misunderstood the constraints of the 
puzzle.
 
> >Can i work around that way in python or should i come up with a new
> >algorithm?
> 
> You definitely need a fundamentally different algorithm.

I expect that this is some question from one of those annoying 
websites that offer extremely advanced mathematics puzzles disguised as 
a programming challenge. (Well I find them annoying. The answer almost 
always turns out to be something which took a genius of the level of 
Euler or Gauss to discover, and they expect you to come up with the 
answer on your own.)


-- 
Steven