B Anonymous 4Chan User Proves a 25yr old Math Problem

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An anonymous user on 4chan posed a question about the optimal viewing order for the 14-episode anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" in 2011, leading to a lower bound calculation of 93,884,313,611 episodes to see all permutations. This proof went largely unnoticed until Australian author Greg Egan recently established a new upper bound, reigniting interest in the problem. Both contributions are significant advancements in a mathematical puzzle that has been explored for over 25 years. The discussion also touches on the challenges of proving lower bounds and the evolving nature of mathematical discovery. Overall, the thread highlights the intersection of popular culture and complex mathematical problems.
  • #31
jedishrfu said:
This reminds me of the story of a grad student who came to class late saw some problems in statistics on the board and assumed they were homework. He worked them out and handed them in.

Later the prof visited him at home saying he wanted to write a foreword to his two proofs and submit them for publication. They were in fact two unproven theorems.

Some time later when he went to see his prof about his PhD research project, the prof said let’s just bundle these two theorems up as your thesis. In that moment, so many grad students became jealous.
That was George Dantzig, and he went on to have a very prolific career:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dantzig
 
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  • #32
Yes, I was writing while traveling and couldn’t remember his name. I especially liked the part about slapping the theorems together and calling it a thesis.
 
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