SJSU math professor breaks barrier

The San Jose Mercury News ^ | 3/26/2003 | Glennda Chui

[SteveH]

Working with a Turkish colleague, a San Jose State University math professor has solved one of the most important problems in prime number theory -- a solution that took him 20 years.

Mathematicians described the advance -- announced at a conference in Germany -- as the most important breakthrough in the field in decades. Like many mathematical developments it has no immediate practical application but may open the door to a wealth of further advances.

[rednek]

some people have way too much time on their hands!

red

[paolop]

Cute, the children's ages at 3, 5 and 7 ... .

[IronJack]

I'd like to see the proof.

[axxmann]

That was my immediate reaction, too. Sounds awful "statistical" to be proven.

[sneakers]

I'm completely confused - I was never very good at math.

[IronJack]

I don't doubt the claimants. I just like to see that kind of brain workout on paper.

[Vinnie]

I can't tell you how much sleep I've lost over this problem.
Finally a good night's sleep! (g)

[griffin]

"I'd like to see the proof."

Yuck. Not me. Differentiation by parts still gives me nightmares.

[Joe 6-pack]

Any bets on how long it takes Elm Gore to take credit for this?

[zook]

It's just this kind of breakthrough that's going to produce the next "Tang" or "Velcro"!

[Stone Mountain]

This is huge - as someone who has studied some number theory, and who knew a math PhD who used to work on this exact problem, it's hard to explain what a breakthrough this is. Definitely the biggest thing to happen in math since Fermat's Last Theorem was proved. If this technique proves to be valid (and it looks like peer reviews are positive so far), many more discoveries about prime numbers and number theory will probably follow.

[VMI70]

Primes are numbers that can be divided only by themselves

OK--I got that part--6 can't be a prime # because it can be divided by 2 or 3 besides 6

or by 1 without leaving a remainder.

How they describe this doesn't make sense to me.
Any whole number can be divided by 1 without leaving a remainder, and no other number can, right?

[SuperLuminal]

This claim is pure bull!

AlBore solved this problem years ago while under fire in Nam. Thought I saw something about this on democrud-N-C site in 2000.

[Stone Mountain]

Yeah - to be more correct, they should have said, "Primes are (integer) numbers that can be divided only by themselves AND by 1 without leaving a remainder."

[SteveH]

AlBore solved this problem years ago while under fire in Nam. Thought I saw something about this on democrud-N-C site in 2000.

Dude, like, this is number theory, not mere politics; where's the gravitas??

[boris]

"Working with a Turkish colleague, a San Jose State University math professor has solved one of the most important problems in prime number theory -- a solution that took him 20 years."

A shame Paul Erdos is dead. He would have solved it in 20 minutes!

--Boris

[VMI70]

Assuming the terms whole number and integer are interchangable, then wouldn't the dividing by 1 part be superfluous?
All integers (whole numbers?) divided by one don't leave a remainder.
One of my girlfriends was a math major. We didn't last long. I couldn't understand her. Do you think it was the math or the girl?

[RightWhale]

the proof

Something about orthonormal polynomial sets. This probably gets into bases and linear algebra spaces.

[IronJack]

Differentiation by parts still gives me nightmares

Partial diff sucked, but worst of all was multiple integration. Somebody had to be hallucinating if they thought anybody could actually remember all those convoluted formulae. Now I've got a $50 calculator that will do it all.