I read the news today by Sam M. '07
Oh boy! I hope that you're as excited as I am.
DID YOU KNOW? The Riemann Zeta Hypothesis was voted to be the most beautiful mathematical problem of the millenium in 2003. One of my friends from high school was voted “Most likely to prove the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis if it is actually false.”
Last year I wrote an entry on a one-question examination that could be used in lieu of an application to admit people to MIT. The question was “1024?” and if you immediately responded “Hey, that’s a power of two!” you would be offered automatic admission. I hear that we’re going to adopt it for the incoming class of 2012. No no, not really.
Well, since then I’ve seen some comments on other blogs asking things like “Oh, I don’t know if I should even bother applying to MIT, it’s so hard and I feel like everybody else is just such a huge nerd, blah blah blah.” So yesterday I figured out another test that will tell you if you should apply to MIT.
I came across an article on Google news about a reclusive Russian mathematician who solved one of the Clay Mathematics Institute millenium problems and won the Fields Medal for it, and now may refuse both the medal and the $1,000,000 prize awarded for solving any of the millenium problems. The Fields Medal might be better known to you as “that thing from the first five minutes of Good Will Hunting.”
If you’re really excited about reading this article now, or if you’ve already read it before coming across it in my blog, then you should definitely apply to MIT.
According to the article, the mathematician even gave a few lectures at MIT in the Spring of 2003 before disappearing back into the forests surrounding St. Petersburg to pick mushrooms. Oh well, another brush with greatness that I missed.
And if you’re not excited about the article, hey, don’t worry, you could still come to MIT and major in biology or something.
Just playin’! If you can dream it, you can do it.
Mollie talks about her boyfriend all the time. Do you have a significant other?
Who was voted “Most likely to prove the Riemann Zeta Hypothesis if it is actually false” in high school? I missed that.
Anonymous — To be totally accurate, I do believe that Mollie has been talking about her beautiful curly-haired imposing _fiance_ for a few weeks now. Haha. But no no, I’m decidedly single. Even if I did find a boyfriend, beautiful and curly-haired or otherwise, I don’t think I’d introduce him as such in this blog unless I were in a relationship like Mollie’s. So the world may never know. By the way, I like the nonheteronormativity of your question!
Steve — Well, I guess you just proved that what I was saying in this entry was right, even though I wrote it in 20 minutes as a joke. Thanks!
Not Mike — Mike C*****, of course! Not by people from our high school (haha, yeah right) but by some of his colleagues at a math competition.
Thats interesting, those were the first things I was talking about today at school. I went to see my math teacher from last year to talk about the whole Perelman controversy and Poincare conjecture in general (I don’t know much about topology), and then we started talking about college. Which is probably why I was at mymit.mit.edu a minute ago, it all makes sense now!