Theorems for sale: an online auctioneer offers math amateurs a backdoor to prestige

Science News, June 12, 2004 by Erica Klarreich

Erdos would have been amused by the fuss over the eBay auction, Graham guesses. "He thought the whole idea of Erdos numbers was kind of goofy."

Meanwhile, Burillo's maneuver may have succeeded in dealing only a temporary setback to the Erdos number auction. Tozier is considering re-running the auction on eBay. He also intends to follow through on his idea of creating a collaborative community of amateur mathematicians, which would be open to the unsuccessful bidders. "I very seriously intend to bring those people together," he says.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Science Service, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
CXO UnpluggedSmart Business interviews on BNET

See and hear how senior level executives across the Asia Pacific are developing smart business ideas across a variety of sectors. The focus is on the future, and on how businesses need to evolve.

advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here

Content provided in partnership with Thompson Gale