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Using computers to crack open centuries-old mathematical puzzles

  • Written by Christopher Rasmussen, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Wesleyan University
Using computers to crack open centuries-old mathematical puzzlesA snippet of 'Arithmetica,' from Diophantus.Wikimedia

In mathematics, no researcher works in true isolation. Even those who work alone use the theorems and methods of their colleagues and predecessors to develop new ideas.

But when a known technique is too difficult to use in practice, mathematicians may neglect important – and otherwise...

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