Here is what gets us mathematicians excited

[Happy Panther]

https://simonsfoundation.org/features/science-news/unheralded-mathematician-bridges-the-prime-gap/

 

Rumors swept through the mathematics community that a great advance had been made by a researcher no one seemed to know — someone whose talents had been so overlooked after he earned his doctorate in 1992 that he had found it difficult to get an academic job, working for several years as an accountant and even in a Subway sandwich shop.

 

 

 

 

But wait here is the exciting bit:

 

 

 

 

Now Zhang has broken through this barrier. His paper shows that there is some number N smaller than 70 million such that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that differ by N. No matter how far you go into the deserts of the truly gargantuan prime numbers — no matter how sparse the primes become — you will keep finding prime pairs that differ by less than 70 million.

The result is “astounding,” said Daniel Goldston, a number theorist at San Jose State University. “It’s one of those problems you weren’t sure people would ever be able to solve.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Astounding!

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

What does that even mean? 

[pstall]

it meanz Zhang will be able to own his own Subway.

[Happy Panther]

What does that even mean? 

 

Barely any idea. 

 

I majored in math and do math for a living and it's like trying to describe the smell of a black hole.

 

All I can tell you is what he did is absurdly hard based on my limited understanding.

[Scrumtrilescent]

The lack of applicability is why he was a Sandwich Artist.

 

 

 

 

Science is a scam.  The world is flat!

 

[PhillyB]

Barely any idea. 

 

I majored in math and do math for a living and it's like trying to describe the smell of a black hole.

 

All I can tell you is what he did is absurdly hard based on my limited understanding.

 

what do you do?

[CarolinaNCSU]

Math and I parted ways once letters started being introduced.  

[Seal (SmittyIsOurSavior)]

Yeah, I quit on math after basic algebra 3 years ago. Although I am taking a business oriented stat class this coming semester. We'll see if I remember how to add and that other stuff.

[jasonluckydog]

Please I figured that out years ago...I thought everybody knew.

[Happy Panther]

what do you do?

 

I'm an actuary. One if the most nerdy and boring things on the planet.

[Black]

That post isn't even long, and it was too long for me to get through.  I need to get my head organ part smarterer. 

[KSpan]

What does that even mean?

Sounds to me like he's proven that, in an infinite sequence of numbers, you won't go more than 70 million numbers between primes.

[Panthro]

Mmmmm prime numbers

[Creep59]

An actuary isnt really a mathematician, he or she is a statistician