Russian May Have Solved Poincare Conjecture

nev4 writes "Reuters (via Yahoo News) reports that Grigori Perelman from St. Petersburg, Russia appears to have solved the Poincare Conjecture. The Poincare Conjecture is one of the 7 Millenium Problems (another is P vs NP, also covered on /. recently). Solving a Millenium Problem carries a reward of $1M, but apparently Perelman isn't interested..." nerdb0t provides some background in the form of this MathWorld page from 2003.

Re:He'd post AC

[Stevyn]

It makes sense. Anyone that brilliant would see how pointless it is to worry about money. When will the rest of us learn? There's more to life than money.

Yeah, it's broadband.

The "free" internet bubble never burst

[poofyhairguy82]

But there's a snag. He has simply posted his results on the Internet and left his peers to work out for themselves whether he is right -- something they are still struggling to do.

"There is good reason to believe that Perelman's approach is correct. But the trouble is, he won't talk to anybody about it and has shown no interest in the money," said Keith Devlin, Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University in California.

I'm always amazed how much free stuff is on the internet. Free million dollar solutions! Good luck with em!

Look at his method for solving this!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

He's trying to integrate homeomorphic convergence using a Baxter-Bates supermodality, which Krause clearly explained is impossible for T(s) in a non-linear progression. Fantastic thought process on this complex differential geometric problem.

Just kidding! I have no clue what the hell this is. I got lost after the word conjecture.

Re:If he doesn't want the money

[Anonymous Coward]

They should give it to me so I can buy a 200,000,000 page Slashdot subscription.

Damn...

[Overzeetop]

I read all the links, and I'm pretty sure they were all in english, but I didn't understand a word of it. No wonder all the mathematicians are nuts.

(I wonder if this is what some of my non-engineering clients think of my work sometimes)

Yes but...

[gbulmash]

His answer to the problem was "42".

- Greg

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Yes but...

[dynayellow]

Makes sense, as I have no idea what the question is.

Re:Look at his method for solving this!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

And if you hadn't added that last paragraph, you'd be +3, Informative by now.

Re:Math?

[fireman sam]

the GBP is a new currency.

GBP (George Bush Pound) - The dollar unit associated with the search for WMDs.

Re:Problems with the Millenium Problems

[jericho4.0]

You're an idiot. The Poincare Conjecture has direct application to streching rubber bands around apples.

I'm joking, but you're still an idiot.

Mr. President...

[cerberus4696]

...we must not have a poincare conjecture gap!

Re:Duplicate?

[EulerX07]

Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.

Place a 2 by 4 on the floor in the door.
Slam the revolving door.

Another impossible problem solved.

One thing he overlooked...

[HoldmyCauls]

Solving a Millenium Problem carries a reward of $1M, but apparently Perelman isn't interested...

He does realize that's as good as *money*, right???

Re:He'd post AC

[Anonymous Coward]

And the average reasonably-successful-slashdotter-guy gets stuck with the "esteem needs" stage aiming for Karma.

But the geeks are all kept equal with hatchet, ax, and 50-point karma cap.

An apple is simple connected a donut is not.

[HornWumpus]

Therefor a butt is not simply connected.

However you stated 'We say the surface of the buttocks are "simply connected"' buy that do you mean to ignore all the plumbing associated with the butt while recognizing the thru and thru nature of the mouth/nose hole.

I NEED more information. I'm strangely fascenated by the topography of butts. Perhaps I can get a grant.

Re:Duplicate?

[pchan-]

sure, but can you ski through it?

Re:He'd post AC

[spektr]

There's more to life than money.

Yes, but he could reinvest the money into rubber bands and apples and solve thousands of Poincaré conjectures at once and thus gather even more money to buy apples for the hungry children in the world and rubber bands for their trousers. Well, if this business model isn't patented yet, of course...

Re:$1 million USD?

[bullitB]

That's a British million. A million is only 10^3 over there.

Paincare conjecture

[starrsoft]

Wow! Someone finally solved the paincare conjecture... wait, didn't morphine do that? and the Christian Scientists [wikipedia.org]?

A Christian Scientist from Theale
Said, "Though I know that pain isn't real,
When I sit on a pin
And it punctures my skin
I dislike what I fancy I feel".

Oh! It's poincare... forget it...

Re:Math?

[AuMatar]

In that case it should be 5.6*i, since we all know the WMDs were imaginary.

Re:Racist title

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, good, now Russians are Muppets. You've helped.

Re:One thing he overlooked...

[TheLink]

He was working on "A special theory on winning a million dollars with math". Being a real mathematician since he has proven to himself he can get the reward, he is satisfied.

Just like the joke about the mathematician who woke up and discovered a fire in his room. After working out exactly how much water to use and what direction to throw it, he said "There is a solution" and went back to sleep (without putting out the fire - that's a job for the physics/engineering folks).

Russian may have proved Poincare Conjecture

[Eric119]

In Soviet Russia...

they prove conjectures.

Re:He'd post AC

[andreyw]

That would be an Erdos number of 1. And btw, holy shit thats awesome. You have an Erdos number of 2.

Re:Confused

[Anonymous Coward]

You are forgetting that this is about an Apple, so obviously there's a Reality Distortion Field at play somewhere. Anything is possible. Including 2D fruit, 4D donuts, and G5 sunflowers. Oh wait, the last one isn't.

I wonder if this Russian fella used RDF as a factor in his equations?!

Re:$1 million USD?

[timeOday]

So Dr. Evil was only demanding $1K?

Re:Math?

[Anonymous Coward]

1,000,000 USD is about equal to 560,000 GBP, not 5.6 million GBP

Yes, it is, for small values of million.

My Solution to Number 5

[JohnPM]

I've solved it:

5 Riemann hypothesis Involving zeta functions, and an assertion that all "interesting" solutions to an equation lie on a straight line. It seems to be true for the first 1,500 million solutions, but does that mean it is true for them all?

Answer: NO it doesn't mean it's true for all of them. You would have to prove that.

Where do I get my money?

So tell the truth...

[raehl]

You just made all that up, didn't you?

Re:He'd post AC

[Dolly_Llama]

See also: A New Kind of Science" [wolframscience.com]

Re:He'd post AC

[kahei]

You're completely correct; I think my comment was mistaken.

Woah, that's weird! I thought I was reading Slashdot but it must actually be some other site.

Re:Math?

[fucksl4shd0t]

I think you misspelled sourted.

Re:How do you get your jollies?

[Ryan Amos]

Didn't we learn anything from Pi [imdb.com]? Mathematicians shouldn't play the market. It makes them put a drill through their skull. Please, help save a mathematician today.