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Nigerian professor ‘solves 156-year-old mathematics problem’
A maths problem which has eluded scholars for 156 years has reportedly been solved by a Nigerian professor.
Dr Opeyemi Enoch, who teaches at the Federal University in the city of Oye Ekiti, could be picking up a $1million (£657,000) prize if his formula is correct.
Before you go thinking that this is a quick way to get rich, you should understand what exactly Enoch has (possibly) done.
Enoch believes he has found a solution to the Riemann Hypothesis – a mathematical problem first proposed by German mathematician Bernhard Riemann in 1859.
It makes up one of the seven ‘millennium problems’, which are a set of problems proposed by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000.
So far only one of these has been solved – and the man who solved it in 2010, Grigori Perelman, actually declined the award, and the prize money!
A statement about the potential discovery by Dr Enoch’s university said: ‘Dr Enoch first investigated and then established the claims of Riemann.
‘He went on to consider and to correct the misconceptions that were communicated by mathematicians in the past generations, thus paving way for his solutions and proofs to be established.
‘He also showed how other problems of this kind can be formulated and obtained the matrix that Hilbert and Poly predicted will give these undiscovered solutions. He revealed how these solutions are applicable in cryptography, quantum information science and in quantum computers.’
However it will take more than a teacher taking out a red pen and giving Dr Enoch a big tick on his work – several mathematicians will have to verify Enoch’s solution.
A spokesperson for the Clay Mathematics Institute said: ‘As a matter of policy, the CMI does not comment on solutions to the Millennium Problems.’
Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/11/17/nigerian-professor-might-have-solved-a-156-year-old-mathematics-problem-5508175/#ixzz3rmvBYaMB
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