Name: The Millennium Problems
ISBN: 9780465017300

The Millennium Problems

In 2000, the Clay Foundation announced a historic competition: whoever could solve any of seven extraordinarily difficult mathematical problems, and have the solution acknowledged as correct by the experts, would receive 1 million in prize money. There was some precedent for doing this: In 1900 the mathematician David Hilbert proposed twenty-three problems that set much of the agenda for mathematics in the twentieth century. The Millennium Problems--chosen by a committee of the leading mathematicians in the world--are likely to acquire similar stature, and their solution (or lack of it) is likely to play a strong role in determining the course of mathematics in the twenty-first century. Keith Devlin, renowned expositor of mathematics and one of the authors of the Clay Institute's official description of the problems, here provides the definitive account for the mathematically interested reader. [Review by David Roberts, on 02/7/2003] In May 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute elevated seven long-standing open problems in mathematics to the status of "Millennium Prize Problems," endowing each with a million-dollar prize. The seven particular problems were chosen in part because of their difficulty, but even more so because of their central importance to modern mathematics. The problems and the corresponding general areas of mathematics are as follows.

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flubertNov 2020

>Riemann hypothesis for example

I'll recommend reading the chapter on the Riemann Hypothesis from the book: The Millennium Problems by Keith Devlin.

https://www.amazon.com/Millennium-Problems-Greatest-Unsolved...

That has about 42 pages of prose describing the problem in layman terms. I'd think someone who tackled high school math should be able to follow it. Dr. Devlin also has a good Coursera course on an introduction to mathematics.

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RiderOfGiraffesJul 2009

There's quite a good "layman's" explanation of the problem, including some of its history, in Keith Devlin's book "The Millennium Problems." The problem description starts on page 112.

In that book he also refers to the official Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) book that gives a summary, and then the problem in detail. He also references a short film that gives a similar outline summary. The film can apparently be found at http://www.claymath.org

I'm sure there are dozens of descriptions of the "Does P=NP?" question on the 'net. Which ones have you read? What was unsatisfactory about them? Name three, tell me what you didn't like, and I'll try to find another for you, or write one myself.

Note: I'm not an expert, but if my knowledge is different from yours, perhaps I can help. I have proved directly that graph 3-vertex coloring is in NPC. An outline of the proof is actually here on HN if you'd care to go find it.

You still haven't answered my original questions, though.

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