Israel – A mathematical puzzle that baffled the top minds in the esoteric field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has been cracked — by a 63-year-old immigrant who once had to work as a security guard.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Avraham Trahtman, a mathematician who also toiled as a laborer after moving to Israel from Russia, succeeded where dozens failed, solving the elusive “Road Coloring Problem.”
The conjecture essentially assumed it’s possible to create a “universal map” that can direct people to arrive at a certain destination, at the same time, regardless of starting point. Experts say the proposition could have real-life applications in mapping and computer science.
The “Road Coloring Problem” was first posed in 1970 by Benjamin Weiss, an Israeli-American mathematician, and a colleague, Roy Adler, who worked at IBM at the time.
For eight years, Weiss tried to prove his theory. Over the next 30 years, some 100 other scientists attempted as well. All failed, until Trahtman came along and, in eight short pages, jotted the solution down. the solution could have many applications.
“Say you’ve lost an e-mail and you want to get it back — it would be guaranteed,” “Let’s say you are lost in a town you have never been in before and you have to get to a friend’s house and there are no street signs — the directions will work no matter what. [AP]
to read more what Road Coloring Problem is
sigh….more proof Russian Jews are the smartest.
We (the plain people)still have to go to work every day. I really couldn’t sleep or enjoy any meals before the “Puzzle” was solved. I am thankful that it was. Life must go on!
And it wil take me 50 years to figure out what on earth this guy is talking about.
Can someone explain this thingy?
kol hakavod, i am proud that it was one of ours who exhibited this brain power.