Mathematicians Solve One-Hundred-Twenty-Year-Old Problem

Mathematicians Solve One-Hundred-Twenty-Year-Old Problem

www.boston.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The answer to the problem is so long that even in a compressed state it takes up as much room as 45 days worth of mp3 music and yet, there is no obvious use for the data.

It took four years for the team of researchers to arrive at the answer and most mathematicians can't understand it.

I support basic research, but I'm scratching my head over this one.

www.boston.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 2007/3/20 by GradyPhilpott]

sounds like an ego boost for the mathematicians more than anything else just to be able to say that they did it. I find it hard to believe that anyone could spend that much time on a project for such little reward.

you could use any metaphor to describe it, but apparently it looks like this:



www.nsf.gov...

[edit on 20-3-2007 by Shar_Chi]

[edit on 20-3-2007 by Shar_Chi]

Hmm, so they don't use computers anymore? lol?

Not all of humanity is driven towards material rewards.

If anything the reward is solving it.


At the present time there is not much use for this, however in the future
there most likely will.

As Neon Haze said in the general board counterpart to this one,
it could prove seomthing to do with quantum gravity braiding, I don't
quite get it myself.

Personally though, I am curious as to whether this may lead to advanced
encryption systems that use multidimensional mathematical locks.

Why climb Everest?

Cuz it's there.
.

I don't understand why artists and musicians get a pass at working on impractical stuff, and somehow scientists and mathematicians aren't allowed to do the same.

Besides, as already pointed out, there may not be much use now, but there could be use well into the future.

There wasn't any practical use for the quantum for almost sixty years (except for maybe the photoelectric effect, but no one understood how it worked when it was first discovered) when it was first discovered, but today we can't get away from anything that doesn't manipulate the quantum world.

For the curious, the first use of quantum mechanics was the cathode ray tube.

Here is the corresponding encoding of the 248-dimensional Lie group E8 in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The lowest of any set of overlapping Trees of Life comprises 19 triangles with solid lines as edges (see below). Division into their sectors creates 57 triangles - the dimension of the solid representing its 248 symmetries. Transformation of each triangle into the Pythagorean tetractys (triangular array of 10 dots) generates 240 black dots other than the corners (called 'SLs' in the diagram) of the original 19 triangles. There are also eight (red) dots outside the lowest tree below its apex. These eight dots correspond to the eight zero roots of E8 and the 240 black dots correspond to its 240 non-zero roots (circles denote dots that behind a dot in the line of sight, as the Tree of Life is 3-dimensional).



I am a theoretical physicist who has been studying the connection between Kabbalah and superstring theory. My 41 research articles on the subject can be found at smphillips.8m.com... E8 is fundamental to superstring theory. Here you see it embodied in the geometrical structure of the universal blueprint of the biblical Tree of Life. As you can appreciate, the fact that the superstring group E8 is embodied in the geometry of the ancient Tree of Life has profound implications for religion and its relation to science.

Sweet! I remember hearing about this in College Bound Calculus back in high school. 120 years of thinking this problem was most likely without a solution, and they found one. Though there are no practical applications at this time, this is like a smaller version of what would happen if they found a final answer for pi!

Thanks for sharing this news.

Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie , lol.

Is it just me or, ..........oh no matter.

You don't think there is some fool idiot in here that would take this seriously, do you?

Well, I'm a Pastafarian Alien that studies the amazing similarities between the group E8 and His Holy Noodliness.

Another accolade of the Great Spaghetti Monster I do say!

My main area of interest is science, and I am curious How Dr. Phillips' work interprets these breakthroughs we have been having a wave of lately, anthropomorphological entity not withstanding.

Let's not discredit their work. After all the first problem in the world that was solved was creating fire to heat food. It might not seem like a big deal but it led space travel and a completely different world.

Maybe it shows that for some problems of the world, it requires 140 different brains working simultaneously. Maybe it will lead to some kind of computerized problem solving network. We are advancing quickly in technology. Internet, Intranet, now shaping these technologies and advancing them is the next step.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think it would benefit mankind as a whole if we perfect a process that combines the ability of the human mind to "reason" and the computer ability to "calculate very fast". Maybe if we string a bunch of humans together on a certain project we can make Calculations + Reason and efficient process, and solve many problems.

"This is like a smaller version of what would happen if they found a final answer for pi"

Hmm. This makes no sense to me. Pi is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is a constant and a transcendental real number (as distinguished from a complex number). This means it is an infinitely repeating decimal representation - an irrational number.

Thus, there is no 'final answer' to be had.

Maybe you were just being enthusiastic? In that case, carry on.

I remember now, it is the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

I don't think there is discredit going on here, at least not from my department. What really interests me is Dr. Phillips' work, I know it ties in, but itself is quite astounding!

I know he doesn't come here very often, but when he does I want him to know somebody looked...and kept looking, and started learning...we need teachers, desperately, and here one has graced us with his passing. Has anyone else here looked?

For you mathematicians studying string theory, this just in.

Now if we all did that math would be really fun!