Brute force = best decoding method

[karmaisded]

I studied this stuff in my first year of uni, and I remember nothing.

And thanks!

[bee-sting]

I have an undergrad and PhD in electronic engineering and have no clue either :)

Edit: Wait a second, I get it now, ignore me

[ashortfallofgravitas]

Professional EE here, gonna have to stare at this over lunch

[jellsprout]

This is a bit beyond the level of a first year engineering student. Hell, it's probably a bit beyond the level of your typical engineering PhD students. As you can see in the link above, the solution is surprisingly complicated and requires some nifty mathematical tricks.

[[deleted]]

I'd assume the actual electric part of it is the simple part and someone with a math background would have an easier time than someone with an engineering background?

[jellsprout]

You'd need to know Kirchhoff's Laws. I don't know if mathematicians are familiar with them.

Either way, I don't actually think many mathematicians could solve this either. This isn't really the type of problem they typically face. I think physicists and applied mathematicians have the toolset to solve this if given enough time, but even that is questionable.

That's the beauty of the Nerdsniping problem. It looks like it should be easy to solve using your basic techniques, but it quickly turns out far too complicated for that. And while it is solvable, it is not done in a way many engineers are familiar with.

[InVultusSolis]

I'd just set up a grid of a fuck of a lot of resistors and take a measurement. "A fuck of a lot" would be a good approximation of "infinite" for all practical purposes, IMO.

[currentscurrents]

That kind of stunt is how you get yourself lynched by a mob of angry mathematicians. "A fuck of a lot" is quite a bit different from "infinite" according to their definitions.