Slashdot Mirror
Road Coloring Problem Solved
ArieKremen writes "Israeli Avraham Trakhtman, a Russian immigrant mathematician who had been employed as a night watchman, has solved the Road Coloring problem. First posed in 1970 by Benjamin Weiss and Roy Adler, the problem posits that given a finite number of roads, one should be able to draw a map, coded in various colors, that leads to a certain destination regardless of the point of origin. The 63-year-old Trakhtman jotted down the solution in pencil in 8 pages. The problem has real-world implementation in message and traffic routing."
Unfortunately for him, a cheap, safe, mass-market flying car was announced an hour later.
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not fast, but reliable. if you don't care what time you get in to cleveland, this guarantees you'll never *end* up in pittsuburgh.
wait, ohio to cleveland?
Actually, if he were to put it on a SD card, it'd take up less than 1 square inch...
Where's my PEDANTIC:-1 option?
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
In Soviet Russia they say that because Americans were so poor mathematicians, they had to invent the computer...
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Well, SOMEONE is about to be hired by google... ...you suppose it's too late to learn Russian, and become his friend?
Forty-two.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
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Apparently his proof was published last September. It's "news" because it's just now hitting the semi-mainstream press. You people fail at nerddom.
No, they're just applying the normal slashdot skepticism. The guy was a security guard for crying out loud. And he's old. Really old. No way he could have used his brain to solve something involving math. Besides, he's probably only trying to get seed money so he can start a pyramid scheme selling perpertual motion.
In Soviet Russia they say that because Americans were so poor mathematicians, they had to invent the computer...
I hear that Russians are such poor computer scientists, they had to get good at math...
That means my screensaver could be an Internet network diagram?
lol: You see no door there!
But when you get to that point, it loses all meaning. R on Lincoln L on 1st St L on R Ave R on Prescott How is that any harder than saying: Orange Burnt Amber Sanguine Desire Ghost Egg White Not to mention the more complicated the street system the more colors you would need and that would cause extreme confusion as people try and tell shades apart.
Today, we salute you, Mr. former-nightwatchman-turned-mathmetician!
What airlines have you been using lately? Not the ones I fly, certainly.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
s/The ^H^H^H joke became lame in like 1994. Seriously, just stop./Awesome, dude! Like, retro 1994 awesomeness! Keep on truckin'!/
Fixed it for you.
Proof at last, that that guy who kept saying, "You can't get there from here" is a bloody liar.
Mir tut es leid, Menschen daß Einfältigfehlersuchenbaumfolgendenaffen sind.
Now adjust the algorithm for colour-blindness! :)
Show your work.
I clearly remember my parents getting Triptick maps from AAA for our annual sojourn to Florida. Those multipage maps had roads colored in nicely, and you just followed them to your destination.
Have mathematicians scraped the bottom of the barrel for unsolved puzzles? Oh, damn. I think I just created something for mathematicians to ponder for the next few decades...
Based upon his ground-breaking research on the road coloring problem, night watchman Trakhtman has been promoted to the Department of Transportation pavement striping crew.
Have gnu, will travel.
More Twoson than Cupertino