Collaborative mathematics: the "polymath" project
 

There seems to be a bit of a buzz about this "polymath" idea... basically, many people get together online and work together on a maths problem.

Here's a blog post: [URL="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/is-massively-collaborative-mathematics-possible/"]Is massively collaborative mathematics possible?[/URL] The readers of this forum might be interested in the polymath: [URL="http://michaelnielsen.org/polymath1/index.php?title=Finding_primes"]Finding primes[/URL].

Thoughts?

[QUOTE=Dougy;192147]There seems to be a bit of a buzz about this "polymath" idea... basically, many people get together online and work together on a maths problem.

Here's a blog post: [URL="http://gowers.wordpress.com/2009/01/27/is-massively-collaborative-mathematics-possible/"]Is massively collaborative mathematics possible?[/URL] The readers of this forum might be interested in the polymath: [URL="http://michaelnielsen.org/polymath1/index.php?title=Finding_primes"]Finding primes[/URL].

Thoughts?[/QUOTE]

The result follows immediately from Cramer's Conjecture.

Dougy,

I think that this is a great idea. From what I understand, they found a new proof of Szemeredi's theorem under one polymath project.

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;192215]I think that this is a great idea. From what I understand, they found a new proof of Szemeredi's theorem under one polymath project.[/QUOTE]

Who is "they"????

Dear Silverman,

Questions only need one question mark. ;)

By "they" I meant the contributors to the polymath project headed by Gowers and Tao, which worked on Szemeredi's theorem. For more information see:

[url]http://michaelnielsen.org/polymath1/index.php?title=Polymath1[/url]

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;192217]Dear Silverman,

Questions only need one question mark. ;)

By "they" I meant the contributors to the polymath project headed by Gowers and Tao, which worked on Szemeredi's theorem. For more information see:

[url]http://michaelnielsen.org/polymath1/index.php?title=Polymath1[/url][/QUOTE]

Gowers. Tao.

It is one thing when Fields Medalists collaborate. It is another thing
when untrained people from this forum do so.

And it is another when *both* groups collaborate; which is what this thread is about.

[QUOTE=Zeta-Flux;192219]And it is another when *both* groups collaborate; which is what this thread is about.[/QUOTE]

ROTFLMA.

I find the idea that Gowers and or Tao (or other similary trained people)
would want to collaborate on research with people who don't even have
an undergraduate math degree to be ludicrous.

Silverman,

First, you seem to be missing an O at the end of your acronym.

Second, did you even read the links that have been provided? This is getting tedious.

I am quite surprised how much time these experts are spending putting this online and answering questions... I certainly wouldn't have time to do that. Although most of the responses I see [URL="http://polymathprojects.org/2009/07/28/deterministic-way-to-find-primes-discussion-thread/"]here[/URL] are quite reasonable (perhaps the questions are filtered anyway).

Yes, I believe the comments are filtered.