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A comment on The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke.". Parent comment

Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by nandemo on Monday November 30, 2009 @06:02PM (#968887)
> but then decided against it because the math is a bit too abstract and unapplicable

Combinatorics isn't really abstract as far as math goes. In fact some call it concrete mathematics.

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by PieSquared on Monday November 30, 2009 @10:12PM (#969160)
Combinatorics isn't, but... coloring grids of squares?

Not that I really have anything against abstract mathematics. It's still very cool, but it's just not going to get me very excited - or at least this exact branch of it, I guess.

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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by drbaskin on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @12:03AM (#969262)
I'm not one to say that coloring grids of squares sounds fascinating to me, but nandemo's point still holds -- as far as mathematics goes, it's pretty concrete.
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Re:The 17x17 challenge. "Worth $289.00. This is not a joke." by ahn on Tuesday December 01, 2009 @01:24PM (#970285)
>Combinatorics isn't really abstract as far as math goes.

Huh? Is it naturally abstract?

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