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Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

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11–20 of 23 posts

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#11

Amateur Mathematician. Who has a degree in maths from Cambridge.

This shouldn't be surprising. You pretty much need formal training in mathematics of some sort to be able aspire to even be an amateur mathematician. There are many people with math degrees out there, it's just that most didn't pursue careers in mathematics.

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#12

Amateur Mathematician. Who has a degree in maths from Cambridge.

Most people who get maths degrees from Oxbridge don't go on to be professional mathematics though. Out of the 7 I know only one did. The others basically don't do complex maths anymore.

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#13
post #3
post #2

This form of problem reminds me a little of the Sofa Problem (although there you are maximising rather than minimising).

Yes, and it has the same kind of "decades of slow incremental improvements by shaving corners off" kind of vibe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem

If you check the wikipedia page, it seems that Philib Gibbs has contributed to this problem as well:

'''A computation by Philip Gibbs produced a shape indistinguishable from that of Gerver's sofa giving a value for the area equal to eight significant figures.[6] This is evidence that Gerver's sofa is indeed the best possible but it remains unproven. '''

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#15

Amateur Mathematician. Who has a degree in maths from Cambridge.

An amateur is not a person that has no knowledge.

An amateur is a person who pursues an activity independently of their source of income.

It's kind of amusing that general understanding of the term has flipped in this way - basically it implies that if you're not doing something under a capitalistic structure, you're probably doing something wrong.

A bunch of software that you use on your computer on an everyday basis was produced by amateurs.

Hobbyist might be a better term.

I have a degree in Physics. I'm not even an amateur physicist - I don't really do anything in the field at all, my time is spent moving pixels about on screens. :P

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#16
Fascinating that the methodology used to generate these covers is local optimisation. The shape is still fundamentally the one suggested 100 years ago, with "bits lopped off".

Which immediately suggests the possibility that they are iterating towards a local minimum. Is the space of solutions smooth enough to have any confidence that there aren't better places to start?

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#18

Amateur Mathematician. Who has a degree in maths from Cambridge.

An amateur is not a person that has no knowledge. An amateur is a person who pursues an activity independently of their source of income. It's kind of amusing that general understanding of the term has flipped in this way - basically it implies that if you're not doing something under a capitalistic structure, you're probably doing something wrong. A bunch of software that you use on your computer on an everyday basi…

Indeed, amateur means "lover".

Re: Amateur Mathematician Finds Smallest Universal Cover

#20
post #13
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and it has the same kind of "decades of slow incremental improvements by shaving corners off" kind of vibe. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_sofa_problem

If you check the wikipedia page, it seems that Philib Gibbs has contributed to this problem as well: '''A computation by Philip Gibbs produced a shape indistinguishable from that of Gerver's sofa giving a value for the area equal to eight significant figures.[6] This is evidence that Gerver's sofa is indeed the best possible but it remains unproven. '''

I wonder if anyone sells an actual (Conjectured) Optimal Sofa.
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