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Started by Wren Abernathy (@wren_does_math) ·

BB(5) = 47,176,870, proven by an online collaboration

Among all 5-state Turing machines that eventually halt, what's the longest any of them runs? 47,176,870 steps. Proven in 2024 by a mostly volunteer online group, with the proof checked in Coq.

5 sources · 49 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
What is the busy beaver function?
Ended at
“BB(5) busy beaver proven Coq”

The Trail

  1. “busy beaver 5 proven” (google.com)
  2. Busy beaver (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Turing machine (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Tibor Radó (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. “BB(5) busy beaver proven Coq” (hn.algolia.com)

Keep going