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An inmate's love for math leads to new discoveries
Phys .Org ^ | 15 May 2020 | Marta Cerruti

Posted on 05/16/2020 6:28:23 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

Havens received a 25-year sentence in Washington in 2011 after being convicted for murder. He found his love and gift for mathematics while in solitary confinement a few months after his incarceration. His journey in mathematics and research led to him publishing a first-author paper in an academic mathematics journal in January 2020.

Initially, my father, Umberto Cerruti, a number theorist who was a professor of mathematics at the University of Torino, Italy, agreed to help Havens simply because we asked him. My father thought that Havens was likely one of the many cranks that fall in love with numbers and come up with a flawed theory. To test him, he gave Havens a problem to solve.

In return, my father received a 120-centimetre-long piece of paper in the mail, and on it was a long and complicated formula. My father entered the formula into his computer and to his surprise, the results were correct!

(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education
KEYWORDS: christopherhavens; dontaddup; italy; martacerruti; math; stringtheory; torino; umbertocerruti
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And has Ted Kaczynski produced anything? Part II of his manifesto? Anything.
1 posted on 05/16/2020 6:28:23 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Ted’s early papers were about esoteric properties of analytic functions in the complex plane, and were considered quite advanced by contemporary mathematicians.


2 posted on 05/16/2020 6:35:31 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I’m glad to see an irate has finally learned to be productive is now a contributing member of society.

This should be encouraged.


3 posted on 05/16/2020 6:38:31 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: Jonty30

I hate my phone autocorrect.
Irate should be inmate, but it is still technically correct.


4 posted on 05/16/2020 6:42:24 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: Jonty30

Birdman?


5 posted on 05/16/2020 6:43:07 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Jonty30

Why does he have a chance to get out of jail? He shot a guy in the head over a meth deal.

https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/crime/article25250860.html


6 posted on 05/16/2020 6:45:44 PM PDT by CaptainK ('No collusion, no obstruction, he's a leaker')
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To: CaptainK

I’m not saying he should. He can do plenty from behind bars.


7 posted on 05/16/2020 6:46:58 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: SpaceBar
English please? dammitLOL
8 posted on 05/16/2020 6:51:35 PM PDT by justme4now (Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it)
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To: DUMBGRUNT
For some light reading, feel free to browse through Havens' paper, "Linear fractional transformations and nonlinear leaping convergents of some continued fractions," especially if you are interested in seeing the nonlinear recurrence relations among convergents of linear transformation of various infinite continued fractions, includes those quasi-periodic continued fractions of Hurwitz and of Tasoev.

And who isn't?

9 posted on 05/16/2020 6:56:51 PM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: SpaceBar

As information about the Unabomber started coming out I thought it was my cousin!

A PhD in math, slightly eccentric from Lombard Illinois, lived off the grid...

He worked for US Gov in DC, forever.


10 posted on 05/16/2020 6:57:32 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

11 posted on 05/16/2020 6:58:59 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: CaptainK

He shot a guy in the head over a meth deal.

Meth/math?

No cigar.


12 posted on 05/16/2020 7:00:00 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: Jonty30

And funny!


13 posted on 05/16/2020 7:02:13 PM PDT by MortMan (Shouldn't "palindrome" read the same forward and backward?)
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To: DUMBGRUNT


"Images.....By Tyrone Green...."
14 posted on 05/16/2020 7:02:52 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Jonty30
I’m glad to see an irate has finally learned to be productive is now a contributing member of society. This should be encouraged.

Considering the difficulty he had in getting books and correspondence, it's clearly not.

I know someone who is incarcerated and he had much the same trouble.

If they want lower recidivism they need to do something about providing these inmates with an education or life skill that can actually be useful

15 posted on 05/16/2020 7:07:39 PM PDT by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: Carl Vehse

And who isn’t?

Zeno’s walk, I’m in!

But this makes my brain hurt.


16 posted on 05/16/2020 7:10:24 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: metmom

Unfortunately, the reality is that unreformed inmates use these privileges to smuggle in drugs and other contraband. They wreck it for everybody.

That’s why matchbooks,in this case, are only allowed in by approved vendors,because unapproved ones would use the textbooks to smuggle in drugs.

It is why you can’t even have a ballpount pen, because of unreformed inmates. It is why he had to agree to keep these textbooks in a locked room and use them under supervision.


17 posted on 05/16/2020 7:14:16 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: dfwgator

C-I-L-L


18 posted on 05/16/2020 7:52:35 PM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: CaptainK

“He shot a guy in the head over a meth deal.”

Hasn’t almost everyone?

Wait, never mind...


19 posted on 05/16/2020 7:53:50 PM PDT by MplsSteve
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To: DUMBGRUNT
They should send him some as yet unproven mathematical formula without giving any details.

His naivete just might help him solve it.

20 posted on 05/16/2020 7:54:09 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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