Re: A Problem To Solve :-)

On 5/6/24 17:58, Physfitfreak wrote:

  Right after, he turned and looked at the pendulum clock to see what time it was. He checked it against the time that computer showed at the lower right corner on the screen. It matched perfectly. But soon he got sleepy and hit the sack.
 

Physfit kept hearing people talking. He opened his eyes and found out he's at the Yemeni missile launching compound! He straightened himself up and sat up as if nothing had happened. But the few Houthis arguing in the room were now aware that he was up and smiled and said he must've been tired to have slept a full half hour on that uncomfortable armchair.
Physfit:  "I must've! You have no ideas what dreams I had either."
Then on a hunch he stood up and went to the window and looked outside to see if the Long John Silvers down there across that street was also in the dream or was real. He saw no Long John Silvers there! He smiled and came back and sat down on that same chair.
Physfit:  "You guys don't know of a Long John Silvers fish and chips store across the street, do you? :) "
Houthis:  "What's that? Never heard of it."
Physfit confirmed to himself that it was then all dream. Dammit. Then Houthis had not beheaded the Nazi previous owner of that store after all. But he then began thinking whether he was still in yet another layer of dream. He had not finished his search for tools or ways to find this out, when the Houthis turned to him and said:
Houthis:  "Your codes for hitting up to five flying objects with just one missile has worked great. We're now devising a way to hit Israeli ships when they're fully protected by the American Navy ships not that far from us. Would you think you could help us in that?"
Physfit:  "I have to see the issue to know that."
Houthi:   "We have written a code to jam the American Navy's radar's report of the location of our missile in air on its way to the ship, without the Navy's noticing that something is wrong. We've worked out the problem fully, in fact, but with one exception. We're still at a loss for a relatively minor issue. In the codes we intend to use, we are dependent on finding a number that is a perfect square itself, but if you subtract 5 from it, you'd also get a perfect square, and also, if you add 5 to it instead, it would yet give another perfect square. We don't know if such a number exists, and if it does, what that number would be."
Physfit told to himself, "I'd better begin working on that right away before I wake up back in my house, or in Holaku's Court for that matter!"
Physfit: "I'll work on it right away and will let you know. "
So he reached down under the coffee table into his backpack and took out his Aspire One mini laptop dedicated to DOS with qBASIC on it, and began thinking on the problem. A few short minutes into it, he found the problem just the type of problem he'd love to work on. So he vigorously worked on it with great focus as well as enthusiasm.
Half hour later, he told the Houthis what that number was. They appreciated that and got right away busy implementing their code on their anti-ship missile.
Within only the rest of that day, in fact, Houthis sank two Israeli ships as a result. Whatever code it was that they'd created, together with that special number, had done their jobs right :)
What was that number and how did Physfit find it?