120 Year Old Math Problem Solved

[FluorescentArmy]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science....ap/index.html

"PALO ALTO, California (AP) -- An international team of mathematicians says it has cracked a 120-year-old puzzle that researchers say is so complicated that its handwritten solution would cover the island of Manhattan.

The 18-member group of mathematicians and computer scientists was convened by the American Institute of Mathematics in Palo Alto to map a theoretical object known as the "Lie group E8."

Lie (pronounced Lee) groups were invented by 19th-century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie in his study of symmetrical objects, especially spheres, and differential calculus.

The E8 group, which dates to 1887, is the most complicated Lie group, with 248 dimensions, and was long considered impossible to solve.

"To say what precisely it is is something even many mathematicians can't understand," said Jeffrey Adams, the project's leader and a math professor at the University of Maryland.

The problem's proof, announced Monday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took the researchers four years to find. It involves about 60 times as much data as the Human Genome Project.

When stored in highly compressed form on a computer hard drive, the solution takes up as much space as 45 days of continuous music in MP3 format.

"It's like a Mount Everest of mathematical structures they've climbed now," said Brian Conrey, director of the institute.

The calculation does not have any obvious practical applications but could help advance theoretical physics and geometry, researchers said."

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So, 4 years of mathematical work for pretty much nothing besides some "help" in the advancement of physics and geometry. I would feel so lame.

[RandomPscho]

248 dimensions and if I remember right the proof was ~80 gigs of data just for the equation.

[lord_carbo]

Lie theory is complete!

Okay not really, but ****ing amazing still.

[rel89]

That's why math is boring.
I love it, but sometimes it just doesn't make sense.

http://www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmi....html#E8cartan

[lord_carbo]

Friend on AIM:

ugg they must have been bored

Hahaha.

[WarlockRox]

Wow. That's insane...Imagine the prestige, though, of being able to say, "Yep...You know that 120 year old math problem? Yeah. I helped with that."

[adlp]

oh the Lie theory E8 problem?

yea i helped with that.

[jecht3009046]

after the celebrating im assuming the conversation went as such
"DUDE THAT WAS AWESOME! That equation was sweet!"
...
...
...
"So...now what?"

[WarlockRox]

Haha. Seriously. "Ok, someone change one of the numbers so we can start this over again."

[FRANKKK]

wow thats crazy

[justom]

Haha my math teacher just assigned me an assignment to write about this event.

[lord_carbo]

Originally Posted by justom

Haha my math teacher just assigned me an assignment to write about this event.

You're 14 and you're going to write an event relating to college level math?

I hope she doesn't actually expect you to explain what lie groups are.

[justom]

Originally Posted by lord_carbo

You're 14 and you're going to write an event relating to college level math?

I hope she doesn't actually expect you to explain what lie groups are.

She just wants me to write about the event itself. She said it doesn't have to be that detailed.

[Nyokou]

Originally Posted by FluorescentArmy

The calculation does not have any obvious practical applications but could help advance theoretical physics and geometry, researchers said.

could

[PsYcHoZeRoSk8eR]

Wow, Just wow.