4 ms·
Of course, knowing that the theorem proves that a room of mirrors is fully lit by a candle is totally worth $3M. /s Seriously though, the article glances over
by curiousgal 7y ago
Of course, knowing that the theorem proves that a room of mirrors is fully lit by a candle is totally worth $3M. /s
Seriously though, the article glances over the applications of such a theorem that make it so useful.
- andrewcchen 7y agoI'd love to know what makes this theorem so useful, but I doubt I will understand much considering this is in an area of math I know almost nothing about. I imagine it must be very hard to explain the theorem while making it accessible and interesting to the general public.
- p1esk 7y agoHe said it takes him “hours” to explain the theorem to phds in other subfields of math.
- 8bitsrule 7y agoIn the 'Numberphile' video mentioned above (about 3 minutes in), it says the initial problem about illumination was asked in the 1950s. This leads me to suspect that it has something to do with building weapons. (Brit physicist Roger Penrose found a solution where some spots were dark.)
- AstralStorm 7y agoAmong other things, completeness of simplex, trust-region like optimization, problem space search algorithms.
- tezka 7y agohow is it related to any of these? do you have links to articles?
- paulpauper 7y agowhy wouldn't it be lit. the photons diffuse everywhere
- stevenpetryk 7y agoThe room can be any polygon, including shapes where there are walls occluding other walls from the candle's light
- SquishyPanda23 7y agoYou may be imagining a simple room. There are lots of polygonal rooms (with non mirror walls) where a candle in the center leaves dark areas. It's not obvious (to me anyway) that it's impossible to construct a sufficiently pathological room of mirrors such that there is at least one dark corner.
- thaumasiotes 7y agoIt seems to me that the amount of lighting in the room will depend on (1) the luminosity of the candle, and (2) the interior volume of the room. Add all the mirrors you want, but you're not going to light a large area with one candle because you don't have enough light.
- klyrs 7y agoThe candle is infinitely luminous, and yet, the mirrors won't melt
- SquishyPanda23 7y agoI don't know this research, but I think the candle metaphor shouldn't be taken too far. The candle is probably more like a source of particles and the claim is that if the particles reflect off the boundary and you can send particles from every direction from the center, then you come arbitrarily close to any other point in the room. Or something along those lines. Again I stress I don't know the research and haven't seen the paper and I'm just speculating.
- idlerig 7y agoI couldn't help but be reminded of the opening scene in the Brenden Frasier classic The Mummy. "Aziz! Light!~"
- jay3ss 7y agoI believe that you're thinking of The Fifth Element
- amayne 7y agoHah!
- amayne 7y agoI believe that was the Fifth Element...
- dEnigma 7y ago"The Mummy" was "written and directed by Stephen Sommers"[1], not Brendan Fraser (who played one of the main characters). [1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_(1999_film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mummy_(1999_film)
- rimliu 7y agoAnd the scene is from different movie anyway.