Cryptography, an area of science based on puzzles? Christian. -----Message d'origine----- De : math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:math-fun-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] De la part de David Wilson Envoyé : dimanche 23 septembre 2007 10:56 À : math-fun Objet : Re: [math-fun] Puzzles that led to new areas of science If by newsworthy you mean related to current events, you probably won't find much of what you are looking for. But if by newsworthy you mean having interesting effects in modern daily life, and hence the stuff of an interesting article, you will probably find more. The four-color theorem pops to mind, though I don't know of applications (real modern political maps tend to use 5 or more colors). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Kim" <scott@scottkim.com> To: "math-fun" <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 2:11 AM Subject: [math-fun] Puzzles that led to new areas of science I'm writing an article for an upcoming special issue of Discover magazine (in Dec) devoted to puzzles. The article will be about puzzles that led to new developments in math or science. For example, solving the Bridges of Könisburg led Euler to the development of topology. I prefer examples where the puzzle statement and the solution are accessible to a lay audience, and want to include some examples that have very recent implications...for instance even though Könisburg is an old problem, there might be a recent application of Euler circuits that are newsworthy now. Anyone have any thoughts? -- Scott Kim _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.13.28/1021 - Release Date: 9/21/2007 2:02 PM _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun