The Guardian Millennium Prize Spotlight: P v NP

November 19, 2010

Matt Parker continues his tour through six of the most intractable problems in mathematics with P v NP.

Writing for The Guardian, Parker (Queen Mary School of Mathematical Sciences) is profiling, and challenging his readers to solve, the six unsolved problems in mathematics. These intractable problems happen to be the Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Prize Problems. According to Clay's website, the Millennium Problems were compiled to " record some of the most difficult problems with which mathematicians were grappling at the turn of the second millennium; to elevate in the consciousness of the general public the fact that in mathematics, the frontier is still open and abounds in important unsolved problems; to emphasize the importance of working towards a solution of the deepest, most difficult problems; and to recognize achievement in mathematics of historical magnitude."

Parker is using the prizes' $1 million reward and the current troubled global economy to entice his readers to try their hand at finding a solution.  

"Given the current economic climate, people are trying all sorts of things to save money, including maths," Parker wrote in his first column in this series about the Riemann Hypothesis. "Shoppers in supermarkets are using addition and multiplication to squeeze every last saving from two-for-one deals. The frugal are dusting off their old school textbooks to see whether refreshing their knowledge of percentages and interest rates could net them a few pennies…What they may not know is that there's a maths prize of $1m waiting to be won… Sure, the US dollar is not what it used to be, but £600,000-ish would ease most people's economic woes."

For this week's focus, P v NP, Parker uses the recent engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton as an example. Read the full article here.

Source: The Guardian (November 18, 2010)