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Monthly Archives: July 2009
The Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture – How to Improve the Upper Bounds.
I can see three main avenues toward making progress on the Polynomial Hirsch conjecture. One direction is trying to improve the upper bounds, for example, by looking at the current proof and trying to see if it is wasteful and if so where … Continue reading
Posted in Convex polytopes, Open discussion, Open problems
Tagged Discussion, Hirsch conjecture
14 Comments
The Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture, a Proposal for Polymath3 (Cont.)
The Abstract Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture A convex polytope is the convex hull of a finite set of points in a real vector space. A polytope can be described as the intersection of a finite number of closed halfspaces. Polytopes have … Continue reading
Posted in Convex polytopes, Open discussion, Open problems
Tagged Hirsch conjecture, Polymath proposals
5 Comments
How to Debate Beauty
Who is the most beautiful queen of cards? Opinions vary. From Gina Says part 2 How to debate Beauty [cosmic variance. Gina Says: May 10th, 2007 at 6:18 am ] The issue of beauty and physics is quite prominent … Continue reading
Posted in Gina Says
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Gina Says Part two
Download the second part of my book “Gina Says.” Link to the post with the first part. “Gina Says,” Adventures in the Blogosphere String War selected and edited by Gil Kalai Praise for “Gina Says” After having … Continue reading
Posted in Blogging, Controversies and debates, Gina Says
15 Comments
A Proof by Induction with a Difficulty
The time has come to prove that the number of edges in every finite tree is one less than the number of vertices (a tree is a connected graph with no cycle). The proof is by induction, but first you need … Continue reading
What can the Second Prize Possibly be?
You are guaranteed to win one of the following five prizes, the letter says. (And it is completely free! Just 6 dollars shipping and handling.) a) a high-definition huge-screen TV, b) a video camera, c) a yacht, d) a decorative … Continue reading
The Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture: A proposal for Polymath3
This post is continued here. Eddie Kim and Francisco Santos have just uploaded a survey article on the Hirsch Conjecture. The Hirsch conjecture: The graph of a d-polytope with n vertices facets has diameter at most n-d. We devoted several … Continue reading
Alarming Developments In Tel Aviv University
Update (July 24): A detailed new article in Hebrew and English. Dr. Leora Meridor, who replaced Dov Lautman in March (just four months ago) as chair of TAU’s executive council is quoted saying: ” I’d give him (Zvi Galil) a list … Continue reading
Vitali Fest
Last week I took part in a lovely and impressive conference on the state of geometry and functional analysis, celebrating Vitali Milman’s 70th birthday. The conference started in Tel Aviv, continued at the Dead Sea, and returned to Tel Aviv. I gave a … Continue reading
Posted in Conferences
5 Comments
Test Your Intuition (7)
Consider the following game: you have a box that contains one white ball and one black ball. You choose a ball at random and then return it to the box. If you chose a white ball then a white ball is added to … Continue reading
