Celebrated Math Problem Solved, Russian Reports
There is a report in the NY times today, linked above, that a Russian Mathematician has solved the Poincare conjecture, one of the more famous problems in the Math world. Its a rather hard-to-visualize problem in topology (the mathematical study of shapes) that seems to hold up,but has never been proven true or false.
It will take months to determine if this proof is genuine, just like the discovery of the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.
There doesn't HAVE to be an answer to the Poincare Conjecture. Godel proved that every system of logic, mathematical or otherwise, will have "undecidable propositions"--in other words, statements which are true or false by all tests, but can't be logically PROVEN. It's a consequence of a finite set of rules of logic and an infinity of possible assumptions.
So, we shall see if this Russian has cracked the case.
Posted by Jvstin at April 15, 2003 5:41 AM