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More on Riemann Hypothesis
Anonymous Coward writes "The NYTimes has a little story on a recent conference at New York University's Courant Institute where mathematicians gathered to discuss potential attacks on the Riemann hypothesis. The Clay Mathematics Institute had announced an award of a million dollars for a proof (or refutation) of the Riemann hypothesis during the millenial celebrations. That million dollars won't be worth much if it takes as long as that Last Theorem by Fermat to solve. There were some interesting observations such as the statistical distribution of the zeros looked just like calculations on the energy levels of large atoms." We did a related story on hard math problems two years ago.
Who stands a better chance at proving/refuting the hypothesis: mathematicians pushing chalk or an NSA supercomputer using brute force? After all, this has an application in encryption...
I do hope that a mathematician wins the prize money though.
"What is the sound of one belly slapping?"
Is this some sort of assertion that the New York Times uses your email address to spam you? Because that's really ridiculous, I registered over 2 (3?) years ago, and I've never received an email I didn't specifically request from them.
I think I'll stop here.
Please ignore me. I haven't had my coffee yet. I don't know what I'm saying.
I am totally wrong.