Unbelievable math problem

[PCBruiser]

I doubt it would be much of a contest since kONGO is far more current than I am. And, has certainly spent much more time in applied math than I have from what I understand. I completed my degree 40+ years ago, and then devoted my interests to business, rather than pursue a scientific career. Unless, of course, we went into areas which I am still more familiar with: point-set and general topology and homological algebra.

As to being Nash in disguise? Well thanks for the question, but no, I am not in his league at all. You are talking true genius levels with people like that, and I certainly am not that category, no way even close to that.

I met and studied under some true geniuses, and they are just on a totally higher plane of intellectual capabilities. I met Einstein, studied under Norbert Weiner, Edward Lande, Aldous Huxley, Paul Samuelson and a few other notables, and their intellectual capabilities were/are awesome in the extreme.

[switch_abx]

that's what I thought as well. No magic.

Originally Posted by BJB

I do not have a high level of math comprehension but I can usually appreciate a good problem/solution... though I don't know why this problem is so "unbelievable" or impressive.

From a visual standpoint, you see that in step 2 you put in the first three digits of your phone number, and in step 6&7 you input the last four digits of your phone number... and lo and behold at the end of the calculation these numbers are displayed together displaying your full 7 digit phone number.

It doesn't seem particularly amazing to me that this problem is able to come up with your exact phone number after you already typed it in. <shrugs> Perhaps it is more impressive from a purely mathematical standpoint.

BJB

[Viking]

Wow guys

What started out as a simple childs game has turned into Maths 101!

I wish you guys hadn't done all that though - brings back horrid memories of tutorials, seminars, lectures and exams - and I deliberately gave all that up years ago to focus on finance. Now I am going to have to go and dig out all my old text books from University days to remind me of what I have been missing.

Damn

[polonyc2]

Originally Posted by PCBruiser

I met and studied under some true geniuses, and they are just on a totally higher plane of intellectual capabilities. I met Einstein, studied under Norbert Weiner, Edward Lande, Aldous Huxley, Paul Samuelson and a few other notables, and their intellectual capabilities were/are awesome in the extreme.

very impressive group of people!!!....I did a search on the names that I did not recognize and they all had a profound impact in their particular fields....to actually have met them all and studied under them must have been an amazing experience, although I suppose that at the time you did not realize their true impact...legends are very rarely recognized as such until they are no longer with us....you really met Albert Einstein?...for some reason I always thought he had died much earlier but when I looked it up it listed his death as April 18, 1955 in Princeton, New Jersey.

[PCBruiser]

Yes, I actually did meet him in about 1953 or 4. My high school had a National Science Foundation grant to provide highly accelerated classes for kids that showed proficiencies in the sciences. By our senior year there we had completed two years of college level classes in math, chem, physics and biology. That was in a local New York City public High School, BTW. They arranged for a field trip to Princeton for us to attend one of his lectures there - didn't understand much, of course, but they also arranged for us to have dinner with him. Unbelieveable, truly incredible.

It was only shortly prior to that trip, while learning more about the man, that I discovered a letter he had written to FDR in which he was trying to convince Roosevelt that the Manhattan Project was critical to the US war efforts. I think the date of the letter was something like 1939 or 1940 IIRC, and in it he convinced (apparently) Roosevelt that Germany was actively pursuing "the bomb", and that it was technically possible. While Einstein was an active and ardent pacifist personally, he recognized that war with Germany was inevitable, and that for the good of mankind, the US had to get the bomb first - or else civilization as we knew it, and clearly any democratic instutitions were potentially doomed. In subsequently released classified information, it was revealed that Einstein's letter was the critical deciding factor for Roosevelt. Amazing story, isn't it?

[Bofinn]

so who is alive today, that would be the equivalent of Einstein? Or at least top dog in the brain department?

[PCBruiser]

Probably the closest person from a public prospective, i.e., with a public persona and name recognition similar to Einstein, that matches his intellectual capabilities would be Stephen Hawking.

[polonyc2]

I agree with Stephen Hawking...but in my opinion the last true genius was Francis Crick...Crick died last year...Crick not only co-discovered the structure of DNA but played a fundamental role in shaping the discipline of molecular biology...Perhaps there are still-living geniuses in fields such as movies, music, sports etc. (aka Steven Spielberg or Bobby Fischer) but I don't place those people on the same level as an Einstein, da Vinci etc.

[DBoone]

All I can say is Wow!! No wonder you guys are mods. Way over my head. In high schoo I hated math even though I was supposed to be good at it. Gave it up in 11th grade and regretted it terribly when I got to college.

[Rick_EE]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

I agree with Stephen Hawking...but in my opinion the last true genius was Francis Crick...Crick died last year...Crick not only co-discovered the structure of DNA but played a fundamental role in shaping the discipline of molecular biology...Perhaps there are still-living geniuses in fields such as movies, music, sports etc. (aka Steven Spielberg or Bobby Fischer) but I don't place those people on the same level as an Einstein, da Vinci etc.

I believe that they are there, but most of today's fields have progressed to the point that the public are simply not able to appreciate their work, or they work for corporations which will always be bigger than any one person.

[Fraoch]

Originally Posted by Rick_EE

I believe that they are there, but most of today's fields have progressed to the point that the public are simply not able to appreciate their work, or they work for corporations which will always be bigger than any one person.

You hit the nail on the head here. Stephen Hawking is indeed the greatest genius currently living, but he's only widely known because of his books in which he attempts to explain these extraordinarily complex concepts to average people. Other geniuses that don't bother to write books in this manner are ignored by the general public, who are largely scientifically illiterate. I'm not talking advanced subjects here, I'm talking basic science. It's really pathetic. I doubt more than 50% of the population knows what an electron is.

Regarding Einstein and the bomb, what's scary is to realize that the V-2 could have delivered a nuclear device to England. Also Germany was working on an advanced V-2 that was truly an ICBM and was capable of reaching the U.S. I forget its name but it eventually became the Redstone missile when Werner Von Braun completed its design for the U.S.