Slashdot Mirror
Optimal 24 mark Golomb Ruler Proven
globring writes "Four years ago, distributed.net users undertook the search for the optimal 24 mark Golomb Ruler. This year sees the successful conclusion of that effort. The diagram of the optimal ruler can be seen here. If you have no idea what a Golomb Ruler is, you can read up on them. Work on finding the optimal 25 mark ruler is still in progress."
I read the article, and I still don't have much of an idea what a Golomb Ruler is good for, and why you need this in addition to a trusty straight-edge, tape measure, or laser distance finder. But hey, I'm not a mathematician.
I do know that people like to study problems that have no practical use (yet) and get completly engrossed in them.
Why bother with Fermat's Last Theorem? Why try to find the least number of colors necessary to color an n-dimensional map? Why obsess over twin primes?
Because it's darn fun , that's why!
Hail to all obessed mathematicians and impossible problem solvers !
Good luck with your 25, 26 and ... n -mark Golomb Rulers.
Folding at home has a lot of merit as far as studying prions (Creutzfeld-Jakob, aka mad cow in humans) and protein disorders (Parkinsons, Alzheimers, etc.). No, I'm not affiliated with them, but I do have a rare disorder caused by an enzyme (protein) deficiency, so I am fairly aware of proteomics (study of proteins) and medical research.