Anonymous 4Chan User Proves a 25yr old Math Problem

[TeethWhitener]

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

 

[jedishrfu]

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.