we need lives. stat.

[tea_and_ink]

The best friend produced this article about a math code that had been finally solved after 38 years, and of course there is a reason why this guy is my BFF, he knows me, so he knows that stuff like this attracts my attention in inexplicable ways and for equally ineffable reasons.

Which is all very good, you know, in the spirit of learning and expanding horizons, etc, etc. Except. We dragged my boyfriend into it, and now the three of us find ourselves knee-deep in enemy territory wherein the only form of communication is through meaningful glances that mostly mean: what in the hell is this? Or the variation: why are we spending our saturday night doing this?, although my personal favorite is: why in the name of God am I thinking about this?

We are still trying to figure out whether The Road Coloring Problem actually translates into anything in real words. We refuse to give up, I'm taking this as a sign of extreme hard-headedness (pun probably intended, I'm not sure yet) as well as temporary insanity.

Still.

Comments

[1grl-revolution.livejournal.com]

A math code that took 38 years to solve? Interesting. I hadn't heard of it. :D

[penandnotebook]

I know, me neither. The article said it was first posed in 1970 and it's a conjecture that assumes the possibility of creating a map that can lead people to get to x point, in the same amount of time, regardless of the starting point.

Thing is, I can sort of see it in terms of data stream, for example, but I can't picture it in real life. A mathematician said this about it: "Say you've lost an e-mail and you want to get it back — it would be guaranteed," he said. "Let's say you are lost in a town you have never been in before and you have to get to a friend's house and there are no street signs — the directions will work no matter what."

We are scratching our heads over here. But then again, 38 years, I think we should really keep that in mind...

[1grl-revolution.livejournal.com]

Wow, makes your head spin a little, doesn't it?

[penandnotebook]

It does. At this point, we're not even sure it's entirely written in English. Can you believe we're actually making COFFEE for this?