Knuth's humor, impossible assignments

Article View: alt.folklore.computers

Article #594

Back to alt.folklore.computers Previous Next

#594

From: s... Steve Handerson
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1989 17:11

17 lines
1156 bytes

This isn't really about computers, but it is about geniuses.
Re: Knuth "humorously" posing Fermat's last theorem in his books:

A friend of mine who went to Yale told me this story, 
related by someone in an advanced (I think it was Topology) math
class.

The teacher would, as a "joke", pose certain unsolved problems 
in exams and homework problem sets.
The first time he did this, he asked if anyone had any luck with
these problems.  
Before he could say that these were unsolved,
a certain quiet person in the back said,
"Well, I got the first four but the fifth I'm not sure about."
All five were previously unsolved problems...

-- Steve

Technical Details

Message-ID: <7407@pt.cs.cmu.edu>

Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!vi.ri.cmu.edu!skh

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!vi.ri.cmu.edu!skh
From: s...@vi.ri.cmu.edu (Steve Handerson)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Knuth's humor, impossible assignments
Keywords: genius
Message-ID: <7407@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 89 17:11:11 GMT
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 17
Posted: Fri Dec 22 18:11:11 1989
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit