Computational Complexity and other fun stuff in math and computer science from Lance Fortnow and Bill Gasarch
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Another Approach to P ≠ NP
Last week's Numb3rs episode "Mind Games" centered on a
purported psychic causing the mathematician Charlie Eppes to exclaim
"Let's all sit down at the Ouija Board and try to solve P versus
NP once and for all."
Worst episode of NUMB3RS ever. The P vs NP crack was good, but the episode never disproved the psychic or said how he did some of what he did. I expect better from one of the most intelligent shows on the air. (Then again, they did claim that from a proof of Rieman's hyp you can crack the internet, so maybe I expect too much.)
My favorite Numb3rs moment was when the mathematician's non-mathematician brother refered to it as "P vs. P." He was then corrected by the mathematician... "*N* P". It was a nice slice of life moment.
Worst episode of NUMB3RS ever.
ReplyDeleteThe P vs NP crack was good, but
the episode never disproved the psychic
or said how he did some of what he did.
I expect better from one of the most
intelligent shows on the air.
(Then again, they did claim that from
a proof of Rieman's hyp you can crack
the internet, so maybe I expect too much.)
bill gasarch
I thought the use of oracles just showed some techniques won't work :-).
ReplyDeleteGilad.
Made me laugh out loud. Then I had to spend 5 minutes explaining to my wife why it was funny.
ReplyDelete--john dougan
My favorite Numb3rs moment was when the mathematician's non-mathematician brother refered to it as "P vs. P." He was then corrected by the mathematician... "*N* P". It was a nice slice of life moment.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has few problems, so P ? NP is meaningless
ReplyDelete