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World's cleverest man turns down $1 million prize after solving one of maths greatest puzzles
dailymail.co.uk ^ | March 23, 2010 | Will Stewart

Posted on 03/23/2010 12:35:33 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY

A Russian awarded $1million (£666,000) for solving one of the most intractable problems in mathematics said yesterday that he does not want the money.

Said to be the world's cleverest man, Dr Grigory Perelman, 44, lives as a recluse in a bare cockroach-infested flat in St Petersburg. He said through the closed door: 'I have all I want.'

The prize was given by the U.S. Clay Mathematics Institute for solving the Poincare Conjecture, which baffled mathematicians for a century. Dr Perelman posted his solution on the internet.

Four years ago, the maths genius failed to turn up to receive his prestigious Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union for solving the problem.

At the time he stated: 'I'm not interested in money or fame. I don't want to be on display like an animal in a zoo.

'I'm not a hero of mathematics. I'm not even that successful, that is why I don't want to have everybody looking at me.'

Neighbour Vera Petrovna said: 'I was once in his flat and I was astounded. He only has a table, a stool and a bed with a dirty mattress which was left by previous owners - alcoholics who sold the flat to him.

'We are trying to get rid of cockroaches in our block, but they hide in his flat.'

It was in 2002 that Perelman, then a researcher at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in St. Petersburg, began posting papers online suggesting he had solved the Poincare Conjecture, one of seven major mathematical puzzles for which the Clay Institute is offering $1 million each.

Rigorous tests proved he was correct.

The topological conundrum essentially states that any three-dimensional space without holes in it is equivalent to a stretched sphere.


(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


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To: Free ThinkerNY

So easy, a caveman could do it.

I’m just saying. He looks like the guys on the Gieco commercials.


41 posted on 03/23/2010 12:59:05 PM PDT by occamrzr06
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To: BIGLOOK

“O” should hire him to find where the next bailouts are going to come from


42 posted on 03/23/2010 12:59:42 PM PDT by SMARTY ("What luck for rulers that men do not think. " Adolph Hitler)
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To: struggle

43 posted on 03/23/2010 1:00:11 PM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: RobRoy

I remember a qustion from a psych professor in a psych class in college.....

Who is smarter, the Harvard Ph. D or the chief of a pigmy tribe in the forest?

Of course, the answer was from me, “Unable to determine”.

All of the idiots in the class automatically said, “The Harvard Ph. D.”. :-)


44 posted on 03/23/2010 1:01:08 PM PDT by El Gran Salseron
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To: Free ThinkerNY

He’s not only clever.. but wise.


45 posted on 03/23/2010 1:02:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Chuck DeVore - CA Senator. Believe.)
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ya can learn a lot from a cockroach.


46 posted on 03/23/2010 1:03:28 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard .. Chuck DeVore - CA Senator. Believe.)
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To: struggle
You can't be serious....I thought that was Rachael Maddow!


47 posted on 03/23/2010 1:04:01 PM PDT by ChrisInAR (Alright, tighten your shorts, Pilgrim, & sing like the Duke!)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

48 posted on 03/23/2010 1:04:01 PM PDT by montyspython ("I don't believe in 'no win' scenarios." - James T. Kirk)
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To: RobRoy
“...“poindexter” may be unable to dribble a basketball more than once or catch a fly ball without it bouncing off his forehead first...”

OK, so long as you agree with me that:

IF a guy can't throw out a first pitch without lookin’ like a girlie-mon,

And IF he can't run a country anywhere but into the ground,

THEN he can still be a Commie Doofus.

OK?

49 posted on 03/23/2010 1:04:37 PM PDT by Leo Farnsworth (I'm really not Leo Farnsworth.)
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To: Free ThinkerNY
An idiot savant?
50 posted on 03/23/2010 1:05:17 PM PDT by rfp1234
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To: InterceptPoint

Actually, I first studied this conjecture about forty years ago. I was surprised when I read this article that it had not been solved long ago. I agree with you - this seems rather obvious to me in a topological sense.


51 posted on 03/23/2010 1:08:24 PM PDT by AFPhys ((Praying for our troops, our citizens, that the Bible and Freedom become basis of the US law again))
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To: Sacajaweau
Always amazes me...He solved it...Hundreds checked it out and agree....which in reality means each was capable of the solution

Finding a proof to a proposition in mathematics can be a very difficult task. Following a proof is one thing. Coming up with the proof in the first place is another thing. Just because you can follow a proof does not imply the ability to come up with it. These are two different skills.

52 posted on 03/23/2010 1:10:43 PM PDT by stripes1776 ("That if gold rust, what shall iron do?" --Chaucer)
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To: oh8eleven

53 posted on 03/23/2010 1:13:31 PM PDT by mbarker12474 (If thine enemy offend thee, give his childe a drum.)
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To: oh8eleven

I go to conventions for a specialized earth-science group with lots of brainiac types. One of the wives once claimed “It’s odd going to a convention where everyone looks like the Unabomber”.


54 posted on 03/23/2010 1:14:19 PM PDT by 21twelve (Having the Democrats in control is like a never-ending game of Calvin ball. (Giotto))
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To: Free ThinkerNY
The topological conundrum essentially states that any three-dimensional space without holes in it is equivalent to a stretched sphere.

Well, that then means any three-dimensional space with a hole in it is equivalent to a stretched donut.

...and I'll durn sure take the million!

55 posted on 03/23/2010 1:14:22 PM PDT by houeto (Get drinking water from your ditch - http://www.junglebucket.com/Jungle-Bucket-1.htm)
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To: 21twelve
It’s odd going to a convention where everyone looks like the Unabomber.
As long as everyone didn't smell like him.
56 posted on 03/23/2010 1:15:53 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: oh8eleven
Didn't notice the smell. But it was always refreshing to sit with someone with people skills!
57 posted on 03/23/2010 1:18:05 PM PDT by 21twelve (Having the Democrats in control is like a never-ending game of Calvin ball. (Giotto))
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To: 21twelve

They didn’t offer you any homegrown veggies did they?


58 posted on 03/23/2010 1:20:24 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: Theo

ditto....I got out the protractor, slide rule, and logarythm equipment and asked loudly.............

.. what ?


59 posted on 03/23/2010 1:22:02 PM PDT by advertising guy (Consumer Of Confiscated Liquers Czar)
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To: montyspython

That is John Grise, also Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite ...

60 posted on 03/23/2010 1:25:17 PM PDT by TexGuy (If it has the slimmest of chances of being considered sarcasm ... IT IS!)
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