Ripple CTO David Schwartz sparked a wave of curiosity online after posting a cryptic riddle on X involving three massive numbers. The question? Add the cubes of those three oddly specific integers — and guess the result.
Some replied with wild guesses, others pulled in Grok for help, but a few caught on: the answer is 42.
It wasn’t just some random riddle for fun. What Schwartz posted actually pointed to a math problem that had puzzled experts for decades — trying to find three whole numbers that, when cubed and added together, equal 42. Sounds simple, but it had mathematicians scratching their heads for years.
In fact, 42 was one of the few numbers under 100 that no one had been able to solve for — it just wouldn’t crack. That changed in 2019, when mathematicians Andrew Booker and Andrew Sutherland finally figured it out after months of heavy-duty number crunching using powerful computers. The numbers Schwartz tweeted were the exact trio they found.
But the fun doesn’t end with math. Fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy instantly recognized the number. In Douglas Adams’ iconic sci-fi series, 42 is humorously dubbed “the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
So when Schwartz dropped the riddle, it wasn’t just a nod to number theory — it was a perfect blend of deep math, internet lore, and geeky nostalgia.
Turns out, in Ripple’s world and beyond, 42 still holds its place as the most mysterious number in the universe.
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