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My favorite mathematical embarassment: what is the chromatic number of the plane? That is, what is the minimum number of colors needed to color each point in th
by bumbledraven 17y ago
My favorite mathematical embarassment: what is the chromatic number of the plane? That is, what is the minimum number of colors needed to color each point in the plane such that no two points that are a distance of 1 apart are the same color? It is known that the answer is 4, 5, or 6.
- roundsquare 17y agoI believe the 5 color map theorem is proved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_color_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_color_theorem As far as I know, there is a "proof" of the 4 color map theorem, but it requires the use of a computer to analyze about a 1,000 different scenarios, so its hard to check, unintuitive, and "not elegant."
- mquander 17y agoThis is not the problem described by the post you are responding to. Search for "chromatic number of the plane" or "Hadwiger-Nelson problem" to find clarification.