Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2023 February 8

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February 8

Mathematics

How to solve this number 208 359 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.114.182.17 (talk) 10:06, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Posing this in the form of the problem "Solve $x=208\,359$ for $x$", we find that the solution is given by $x=208\,359.$ The number is composite, with the factorization $208\,359=3^{3}\cdot 7717.$  --Lambiam 11:22, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

If the question is how to reduce the ratio 208:359 to lowest terms, it is its own answer, as the two numbers have no common factors (359 is a prime number). —Tamfang (talk) 05:04, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

The wiki software plus HTML rendering made it invisible that the question was written as

How to solve this number

208

359

which may matter in guessing its intended sense. --CiaPan (talk) 07:19, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
(Pinging replying contributors: @Lambiam and Tamfang:. --CiaPan (talk) 18:42, 10 February 2023 (UTC))

In that case, the question could be a number of equations:

$208+359=567$

$208-359=-151$

$208\times 359=74672$

which are obtained using traditional methods of addition, subtraction, and multiplication. -insert valid name here- (talk) 17:53, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

359 is claimed to be the funniest three-digit number. 208 is both practical and happy, and is presumably 359's straight man. Unfortunately, this doesn't tell us what the punch line is, if any. -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 17:23, 12 February 2023 (UTC)