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Russian May Have Solved Poincare Conjecture

Posted by timothy on from the he-said-to-forward-the-prize-money-to-me dept.

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.

4 of 527 comments (clear)

  1. Re:fp ya by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    In Soviet Russia, Poincare Conjecture solves YOU!

  2. Poincare Conjecture link sucks! by t'mbert · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Can someone explain this better? That link to the conjecture is plain awful.

    Here are my questions (in parens):

    If we stretch a rubber band around the surface of an apple, then we can shrink (huh? what do they mean by "shrink" here?) it (rubber band or apple?) down to a point by moving (huh? again, what does "move" mean here) it (rubber band or apple) slowly, without tearing it and without allowing it to leave the surface (okay, must mean rubber band doesn't leave the surface of the apple then?). On the other hand, if we imagine that the same rubber band has somehow been stretched in the appropriate direction (what direction would that be?) around a doughnut, then there is no way of shrinking it (rubber band again I assume) to a point without breaking either the rubber band or the doughnut. (why? the writer made a big leap here, but it's not obvious)

  3. Re:Russian may have proved Poincare Conjecture by inburito · · Score: 0, Redundant

    No, you got it wrong..

    In Soviet Russia.. ..conjecture proves you.

  4. Plonco's constant by just_gecko · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I don't understand why all this fuss about the Poincare conjecture, the answer is pretty obvious.

    If there's one thing I remember from 6th grade physics, that's Plonco's constant:

    Plonco's constant is the number times which you have to multiply the result you obtained in order to get the correct result of the problem.

    And if there's one thing I remember from 6th grade math, that't the Perfect Function (pf):

    pf: All problems -> All results,
    pf (problem data) = result.

    The Poincare Conjecture (and every millenium problem for that matter) can easely be solved by applying the Perfect Function and then multiplying with Plonco's constant.