Want to joint the ranks of Pythagoras, Tales, Euclid, Riemann, Bertrand, L'Hôpital and some other eggheads that have theorems named after them, but don't want to spend the better part of your life researching and developing a theorem of your very own (or just don't want to have anything to do with math; nasty stuff, that)?
Well now you can. TheoryMine is a company that specializes in automated theorem proving, and their theorem testing/proving process discovers new theorems every day. So what to do with all these new theorems? Sell them. £15 will buy you your very own, perfectly valid, unique, hitherto undiscovered, mathematical theorem, complete with proof (take that, Fermat!).
So, um, yeah. No guarantee your theorem will ever find wider use, recognition or glory, but hey, your very own theorem. Yay.
Link.
Well now you can. TheoryMine is a company that specializes in automated theorem proving, and their theorem testing/proving process discovers new theorems every day. So what to do with all these new theorems? Sell them. £15 will buy you your very own, perfectly valid, unique, hitherto undiscovered, mathematical theorem, complete with proof (take that, Fermat!).
QUOTE said:Its automated theorem-proving software can churn out a theoretically infinite number of theorems for customers wishing to join the ranks of Pythagoras and Fermat. "We generate new theorems and let people name them after themselves, a friend, a loved one, or whoever they want to name it after," explains Flaminia Cavallo, managing director of TheoryMine, based in Edinburgh, UK.
You may think this is an elaborate scam, or that you'll just end up with an obscure equation copied from some long-forgotten textbook, but TheoryMine claims to have far more validity than superficially similar companies selling star names.
"We're inventing totally novel theorems, and the tradition is you have the right to name these theorems," explains Alan Bundy, professor of automated reasoning at the University of Edinburgh and another member of the TheoryMine team.
He's got a point. Automated theorem proving is a well-respected mathematical field, used by manufacturers to guarantee that the algorithms in computer processors will work correctly.
From its library of mathematical knowledge, the program generates a set of mathematical axioms, then combines them in different ways to produce a series of conjectures. It then uses the library to discard a portion of these on the basis that there are already counter-examples, showing they can't be true. Overly complex conjectures are also ignored. Then it applies a technique known as "rippling", in which it tries out various sequences of logical statements until one of these sequences turns out to be a proof of the theorem.
Don't prepare your Fields medal acceptance speech just yet though, as TheoryMine's theorems are unlikely to break drastically new ground. "We can't say that we'll never do that, but having looked at the things that come out, they're not typically things that are going to change the world," says Dixon.
If not revolutionary, your theorem will at least be unique, since the TheoryMine software ignores trivial variants of already proved theorems. And in case you're wondering, Aron's theorem, delivered as a pdf by email yesterday, says something about the order in which you can add a new variety of numbers.
So, um, yeah. No guarantee your theorem will ever find wider use, recognition or glory, but hey, your very own theorem. Yay.
Link.