2 ms·

This guy solved two open problems in mathematics because he mistook them for a homework assignment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig#Mathematical_s

This guy solved two open problems in mathematics because he mistook them for a homework assignment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig#Mathematical_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig#Mathematical_st... "A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept them as my thesis." Each paper was seven pages, which would make a fourteen page thesis.

stochastic_monk 9y ago
Very, cool! In fact, a paper which solved one of these problems [1] is precisely 7 pages. Additionally, it contains the footnote: "The main results of this paper were obtained by the authors independently of each other using entirely different methods." [1] https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695 https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695