Re:Answer to a 150-Year-Old Math Conundrum Brings More Mystery
by mafribe on Sunday June 21, 2015 @07:06AM
(#9752945)
It's a useful technique not just for undergraduates. Here are two famous computer science examples.
* Dana Scott discovered the lattice based model of the λ-calculus while trying to prove that no set theoretic models exist. This put functional programming on the map.
* Volker Strassen found his fast matrix multiplication while trying to show that the traditional O(n^3) is optimal. This might have been the first or one of the first non-trivial and unexpected innovations that came from the then new field of computational complexity.
* Dana Scott discovered the lattice based model of the λ-calculus while trying to prove that no set theoretic models exist. This put functional programming on the map.
* Volker Strassen found his fast matrix multiplication while trying to show that the traditional O(n^3) is optimal. This might have been the first or one of the first non-trivial and unexpected innovations that came from the then new field of computational complexity.