Millenium Questions

[JJG13]

I heard on the radio recently that some guy is willing to pay $1,000,000 for each of seven questions known as the "Millenium Questions". One of these questions is the pattern of the prime numbers.

So has any one else know or remember what the others were or have any comments?

[Jeff_Rice]

I looked it up on google and all I got was a few forums and a creepy "Congress of Goddesses" web site.

[JJG13]

Originally posted by Jeff_Rice
I looked it up on google and all I got was a few forums and a creepy "Congress of Goddesses" web site.

Hmmm. I only heard five minutes about the millenium questions during a ride home from a robotics meeting. A mathmatician was writing a book about these questions and named them.

Also the other question I heard was something about air flow. The guy said that there was an equation about it that could not be solved.

[jon virgi]

hmm , well, heres the site for the whole 7 millenium questions..... u get a million if u solve any of them , but the acceptance of ur solution process is quite rigorous. Look at the P=NP problem with its minesweeper relationship(its neat). The site gives a simple description of the problem then if u click on the official question like on the right, u get the full mathematical termed problem. They are pretty neat to look at and think about.

heres the link: http://www.claymath.org/Millennium_Prize_Problems/

[Aaron Lussier]

Wow I had heard about this on TV, those problems look wicked hard. We should get together and try to slove one of them or something, then donate the money to FIRST

[jon virgi]

or we should all team up to solve one then just split the money among us, and not give it to FIRST.

[srjjs]

Splitting the money between people is bad. After all, you probably wouldn't have found out if it weren't for FIRST. At the least donate the money to your team.

[jon virgi]

well, i knew about them prior to this thread, and you sound like I actually solved one and have the money. hahaha, they are insanely tough. It would take a while just to fully comprehend the official question.

[srjjs]

Maybe my wording was a little off. I didn't mean find the questions, I meant find the solutions. Unless you were working solely with people who you know well outside of FIRST anyways, you wouldn't have been able to solve the problems.
Yes, they are hard, but the prize is a million dollars. If I spend 2000 hours working on a problem and won the prize, that's a very good wage.

[HolyMasamune]

Knowing the difficulty of the problems, it'll probably take months or years to solve...I dont have the math nor the patience to solve it :). After all, if after a year or two I realize that I can't solve it, I think I'll be pretty mad.

[jon virgi]

i think i would be able to solve one, but it would probably be like one of those huge things that takes your entire lifetime to solve. but you would probably be famous for solving one. And personally, i dont feel like wasting years on end dedicated to solving a problem.

I mean if the problem would give us a great new way to do something extraordinary in a FIRST competition then, yea, i would do it! ---- hmm. well. no, i still wouldnt.

[Timinator]

Just remember there is a reason they're paying $1 million to solve these problems. I don't think all of FIRST has what it takes to solve one, they aren't exactly easy. Somewhere, some genius will figure it out, but don't think you can work on it and end up with the solution.

[Duke 13370]

Did I miss something, or are all the "questions" just lectures on a topic or theory with no real explination of what they want?

[srjjs]

No, most are theorems, for which they want a proof one way or another.
I think that they are possible, it's just that people aren't dedicated enough to work hard and find a solution. For example, the P vs. NP looks (to one of the uninitiated) like it is quite possible for the group on this website, considering how many computer science experts there are here.
In general, people involved in robotics have at least some math skill, so I don't see why we couldn't try, at least.

[Jeff_Rice]

I too agree that the P NP has the best chance of being solved by someone from FIRST. If you looked at the pdf descriptions of the others, most involved incredibly complex equations of which they want proof. Also, you must keep in mind that some people have dedicated their whole lives to solving these questions--not to discourage anybody, though. I believe these others would just be too advanced for most people. Even FIRST people.

I'd love for someone to prove me horribly wrong by solving all of them. (Or even one:cool: )