63-year-old solves riddle from 1970

[FARAFIELD]

Source: MSNBC

JERUSALEM - A mathematical puzzle that baffled the top minds in the esoteric field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has been cracked — by a 63-year-old immigrant who once had to work as a security guard.

Avraham Trahtman, a mathematician who also toiled as a laborer after moving to Israel from Russia, succeeded where dozens failed, solving the elusive "Road Coloring Problem."

The conjecture essentially assumed it's possible to create a "universal map" that can direct people to arrive at a certain destination, at the same time, regardless of starting point. Experts say the proposition could have real-life applications in mapping and computer science.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23729600/

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Totally cool, read it online, pretty cogent up to the point where he lost me, but I suppose that is why math majors are so smart. (by the way no truth to the rumor that Hillary has hired him to figure out here "delegate math")

[JohnnyLib2]

1. What? A boomer has something to offer?

Serious political implications here...... :evilgrin:

[provis99]

11. 63 years old would mean he was born in 1944 or 45

That makes him a member of the Silent Generation, not a baby boomer. Nice try, trying to steal the accomplishments of the Silent Generation. Now go back to Woodstock.

[JohnnyLib2]

20. LOL, I'm technically Silent as well.

Go figure.:evilgrin:

[Scout]

34. nope. my brother was born in '45, and he and I are both boomers. n/t

[MADem]

31. I suppose "they" will let that one live...so he can invent the maps to help them

find their way home...

[panader0]

2. I lost my truck once.... coulda used one of them universal maps.

Kidding aside, that's very interesting. I know a few smart laborers too. (Well, maybe one)

[rurallib]

3. I lost a road once

it was under me and then it wasn't.

[Donnachaidh]

7. earthquake? Or libations? n/t

[bahrbearian]

24. Roll-Over ?

[rurallib]

26. Some libation, turned onto a road under construction

thank god I had a friend who had a tractor and I didn't have to explain to the Gendarme why my car was in the muck.

[Radio_Lady]

4. Symbolic dynamics... I couldn't even follow the MSNBC article, as far as it went.

LOL... delegate math!

[fshrink]

5. So much for the loss of neurons as you age.

That gives me a few years!

[Donnachaidh]

6. oh hell yes!

My grandfather was doing NY Times crossword puzzles WELL into his 80's, with no help. Just gotta keep those neurons firing, working things out.

[Botany]

8. A schmeer of cream cheese on a bagel and one can see anything in the world.

what a great story.

[burrowowl]

9. K&R! Wow!

Go Oldsters!
Rare in Math!

[Up2Late]

10. Well I could have told them THAT! I solved this one years ago, but didn't know I was the first...

...Just kidding.

I wish they would have given a link to the solution, now I have to search the whole Internets for it.:evilgrin:

"...Margolis said the solution could have many applications.

"Say you've lost an e-mail and you want to get it back — it would be guaranteed," he said. "Let's say you are lost in a town you have never been in before and you have to get to a friend's house and there are no street signs — the directions will work no matter what."

<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23729600>

[closeupready]

12. why am i not that smart??????

:crazy: Amazing what people can do with their minds.

[krkaufman]

13. chuckle. (re: HC delegate math) n/t

[AlphaCentauri]

14. Where is the solution to the problem

the article mention that it is available on line, can't find it.

[AlphaCentauri]

16. I got it

http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/0709.0099v1

[Lakerstan]

18. I used to think I was fairly intelligent

now I realize I'm just a moran. :dunce:

[AlphaCentauri]

28. I feel the same way n/t

[InkAddict]

15. Sort of defeats the fun of a road rally before it's even run...Everyone will

arrive first, then again:

Margolis said the solution could have many applications.

"Say you've lost an e-mail and you want to get it back...


Hmmmm.....

[struggle4progress]

17. Translation into English:

Start by drawin a buncha big dots representin some towns on yer paper. Then draw some arrows representin one-way roads betwixt various towns: each arrow starts at some town and goes to some other town. Assume this an "OK road-system," meanin ya kin drive from any one town to any other without illegally goin up some road(s) the'wrong way

Now, if possible we wanna color code th'roads so's we can have a DU meet-up. Of course, DUers is all over th'map. So th'idea is, we'd like th'radio station to broadcast a little list of colors (like "red blue red yellow yellow green blue red green red" or "yellow blue yellow green red blue" or whatever it is) -- and when DUers hears this sequence on th'radio, they all pops in they cars and drives, following th'color list to decide how to get from town t'town

Fer zample, if th'color list starts "green purple brown ..." then everybody leaves they own town on a green road which they follows to th'next town; then everybody leaves whatever town they gots to first on a purple road which they follows to th'next town; then everybody leaves whatever town they gots to second on a purple road which they follows to th'next town; and so on

So the question is: can we get out our highlighters and color th' roads various colors in such a way that we can send every DUer a color copy of th'colored map and then at a certain time broadcast th'color sequence so that everybody who follow th'whole color sequence end up in th'same town

Note th'question ain't: Why in th'friggin wurld wud anybody wanna do this?

[truthisfreedom]

22. ugh

[NashVegas]

25. Your Answer

To automate transportation.

Isn't it neat how some of the smartest people in the world are being utilized to make humans - or shall I say, human intelligence - completely unnecessary?

[struggle4progress]

29. Probably more of interest in modeling parallel computation or certain biodynamic problems

If you have a computer made of many small identical computation devices, it may be important to be able to restart all submachines in a common state

And something like this is needed for the purpose of modeling (say) heartbeat: one needs to understand how all the muscles could be instructed to contract in synchrony

[sudopod]

19. Help!

I can't find the "You are here!" arrow!

[trusty elf]

21. Now, about that Mideast Road Map......

[dipsydoodle]

23. So is this the end of

The Road To Nowhere ? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKqzayNo4Dk

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Makes it easier for everyone to find

the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, I should think.

btw...it was us "old fogies" who stayed in the streets long enough to make Lyndon Johnson decide not to run again, and who scared the hell out of Nixon.
Oh, yeah, and stopped that little fracas in SE Asia.

[DiverDave]

30. Geez, The Luddites are not gonna like this...

eom

[AngryAmish]

32. Another unsolved riddle: There once was a man from Venus, who had a very large...

what is the rest?

[displacedtexan]

33. So much for those missing BushCo emails...

"Say you've lost an e-mail and you want to get it back — it would be guaranteed," he said.

How cool is that?