Poincare Conjecture Proof Completed

Flamerule writes "A New York Times article has finally provided an update on the status of Grigori Perelman's 2003 rough proof of the Poincaré Conjecture. 3 years ago, Perelman published several papers online explaining his idea for proving the conjecture, but after giving lectures at MIT and several other schools (covered on Slashdot) he returned to Russia, where he's remained silent since. Now, mathematicians in the US and elsewhere have finally finished going over his work and have produced several papers, totaling 1000 pages, that give step-by-step, complete proofs of the conjecture. In addition to winning some or all of the $1,000,000 Millennium Prize, Perelman now seems to be the favorite to receive a Fields Medal at the International Mathematics Union meeting next week, but it's not clear that he'll even show up!"

Square Pegs in Round Holes

[Doc Ruby]

Goddamn I love freaky misfit mathematical geniuses. They're even better than their nerdier cousins, the chess geniuses. The ones from Central/Eastern Europe and South Asia always seem to be the most fun.

Too Many Pages

[tonyr1988]

Now, mathematicians in the US and elsewhere have finally finished going over his work and have produced several papers, totaling 1000 pages

Someone's going to have to post a printer-friendly on that one.

a million, a thousand, roundness

[davidwr]

$1,000,000, 1,000 pages, those numbers are apprpriately round for the occasion.

Seemed obvious

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't the answer 42?

Re:I remain skeptical

[tftp]

People who tried to do it on 999 pages or less all failed.

Re:Square Pegs in Round Holes

[Anonymous Coward]

The ones from Central/Eastern Europe and South Asia always seem to be the most fun.

No kidding. Half of my good math books are Russian translations (and half of my good math professors were Russians). The mathematical ability of Russians must have something to with long Siberian winters. Nothing to do except pee in the snow and write math problems, sometimes both at the same time (especially if you can get some of the 'good' soda machine vodka)!

Re:Too Many Pages

[NotQuiteReal]

Simple - just wave your hands and blather on for a page or so about how obvious the proof is... and in the footnotes reference the 1000 page version.

Trust me, 99.9999% of the folks will never follow the link if your short blather is at all close to an accurite summary.

Re:I remain skeptical

[maynard]

wait! Don't dung beetles roll their dung into balls? And what does that make it? A sphere! There's some connection here, I swear. Whoa...

TFA is well worth reading

[OldManAndTheC++]

Quite an interesting character, this Perelman, and his proof could turn out to be a real landmark for mathematics.

I liked this bit:

Asked about Dr. Perelman's pleasures, Dr. Anderson said that he talked a lot about hiking in the woods near St. Petersburg looking for mushrooms.

Whatever he's smoking, I want some!

Re:A rabbit is a donut, not a sphere.

[mcc]

What kind of strange rabbits have these topologists seen?

Chocolate ones

Maybe he...

[rolandog]

just found a girlfriend? //I keed.

Re:Grigori Perelman, please give us a sign!

[drix]

Haha.. oh that's rich. "Please Mr. Perelman--flee from the military-industrial complex. Come to a sanctum of human rights and democracy. Come to ... [wait for it] ... America!"

The reason they can't find him in Russia is because he's already living in Sweden.

Re:Grigori Perelman, please give us a sign!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh no, not in Sweden! We should send a rescue party before the socialists and insane feminists get to him. He may be taxed to death!

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:a million, a thousand, roundness

[dabigpaybackski]

You mind proving that?

Re:Grigori Perelman, please give us a sign!

[anothy]

i keep asking for a "Tragic" modifier, but i can't decide whether it would be +1 or -1.

Okay, so what you're saying is...

[spun]

(forgive me)

In Soviet Russia, mathematics teaches you.