Image Credit: Michael Taylor
In order to celebrate mathematics in the new millennium, The Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Massachusetts (CMI) established 7 Millenium Prize Problems – some of the most difficult problems ever to face mathematicians. Its aim? To elevate in the public consciousness the fact that, in mathematics, the frontier is still open and abounds in important unsolved problems. Follwing the decision of the Scientific Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of CMI designated a $7 million prize fund for the solution to these problems, with $1 million allocated to the solution of each problem. Only Problem 3 – the proof of the Poincaré conjecture – has been completed. If the economic bounty isn’t enough to tempt you, read my posts on “Motivation, million dollar maths and Gödel” or “Mathematical Myths and Legends” to wet your mathematical tastebuds. Maybe you have the makings of a mathematical legend in you? The 7 problems are:
Problem 1: The P=NP Problem
Problem 2: The Hodge Conjecture
Problem 3: The Poincaré Conjecture (solved in 2002 by Grigori Perelman)
Problem 4: The Reimann Hypothesis
Problem 5: The Yang–Mills Existence and Mass-Gap Problem
Problem 6: The Navier–Stokes Existence and Smoothness Problem
Problem 7: The Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture
