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Would proving this advance our knowledge in some related field such as mathematical topology? Since the values have already been brute forced (but unproven) the
by SOLAR_FIELDS 8y ago
Would proving this advance our knowledge in some related field such as mathematical topology? Since the values have already been brute forced (but unproven) there really isn’t any direct practical application for knowing the solution
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mabbo 8y ago> there really isn’t any direct practical application for knowing the solution Oh, but math always seems that way. And often, it is. But sometimes, very rarely, your solution to the sofa problem explains a key detail to P vs NP, or allows a breakthrough in transistor design, or improves the airflow calculations allowing for faster jets, etc. Math's true beauty is that it's never done playing games with us as we realize all the strange connections.
- Someone 8y agoDepends on the proof. If it solves this specific problem more or less through perseverance, it won’t be more than a tiny footnote in the history of mathematical. If, on the other hand, some abstract theory contains this as a special case (say by limiting the number of dimensions to 2 and the geometry to Euclidean), that theory could (but isn’t guaranteed to) have wider application, both inside mathematics and outside of it. I would think the former is more likely than the latter, though.