
Student mistook examples of unsolved math problems for homework, solves them - sohkamyung
http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/unsolvable.asp
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phonon
Huffman Codes have a similar origin.

[https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_librar...](https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/images/upload_library/46/Pengelley_projects/Project-14/Huffman.pdf)

 _In 1951 David A. Huffman and his classmates in an electrical engineering
graduate course on information theory were given the choice of a term paper or
a final exam. For the term paper, Huffman’s professor, Robert M. Fano, had
assigned what at first appeared to be a simple problem. Students were asked to
find the most efficient method of representing numbers, letters or other
symbols using a binary code. Besides being a nimble intellectual exercise,
finding such a code would enable information to be compressed for transmission
over a computer network or for storage in a computer’s memory.

Huffman worked on the problem for months, developing a number of approaches,
but none that he could prove to be the most efficient. Finally, he despaired
of ever reaching a solution and decided to start studying for the final. Just
as he was throwing his notes in the garbage, the solution came to him. “It was
the most singular moment of my life,” Huffman says. “There was the absolute
lightning of sudden realization.

[...]

Huffman says he might never have tried his hand at the problem - much less
solved it at the age of 25 - if he had known that Fano, his professor, and
Claude E. Shannon, the creator of information theory, had struggled with it._

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pmoriarty
George Pólya on von Neumann:

 _" Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of. If in the course of a
lecture I stated an unsolved problem, the chances were he'd come to me at the
end of the lecture with the complete solution scribbled on a slip of paper."_

~~~
danieltillett
I think everyone was worried about telling Johnny what they were working on
inc case he solved it on the spot.

~~~
TylerH
Ha ha

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joe_the_user
A professor of mine told a similar story about John Milnor but apparently
that's a garbled version.

[https://mathoverflow.net/questions/54513/the-story-about-
mil...](https://mathoverflow.net/questions/54513/the-story-about-milnor-
proving-the-f%C3%A1ry-milnor-theorem)

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peterburkimsher
For anyone interested in trying their own "homework":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_m...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics)

~~~
baddox
I don't think it works if you know they're difficult unsolved problems.

~~~
thephyber
I think having someone pick a problem for you (thereby removing the option of
choice) also focuses the mind.

It likely prevents you from doing a breadth-first search across the many
problems, whereas a correct solution probably requires a depth-first approach.

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Mz
_A year later, when I began to worry about a thesis topic, Neyman just
shrugged and told me to wrap the two problems in a binder and he would accept
them as my thesis._

I like the professor.

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ufo
Does anyone know what were the theorems that Dantzig proved there?

~~~
vilhelm_s
According to stackexchange
([https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/533146/dantzigs-
uns...](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/533146/dantzigs-unsolved-
homework-problems)) they were these two:

[https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177731912](https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177731912)

[https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695](https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177729695)

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HillaryBriss
_...the Reverend Schuler [sic] of the Crystal Cathedral in Los Angeles._

That building is in Orange County, not Los Angeles.

