path-breaking, guest list, shrunk that uncertainty by exponential amounts

 

In this (holiday party season appropriate) reader-favorite article, explore how guest list planning can create serious mathematical uncertainty.

The "friends and strangers" theorem (based on a concept known as Ramsey Numbers) is a long-standing mathematical conundrum that asks how many people you need at a party to ensure, for example, that at least three people know each other, OR at least three people do not know each other. Turns out the answer is six, but as the guest list expands, so does the mathematical uncertainty.

Learn how Caltech professor David Conlon and collaborator Asaf Ferber of @UnivUniversity of California, Irvine have shrunk that uncertainty by exponential amounts for a special category of Ramsey numbers known as multicolor Ramsey numbers. https://www.caltech.edu/....../math-professor-makes......

CALTECH.EDU

Math Professor Makes Breakthrough in Ramsey Numbers

David Conlon and his colleague have dramatically shrunk the uncertainty for a math problem related to the "friends and strangers" theorem.

Franklin A. Thomas, Pathbreaking Ford Foundation President, Dies at 87

He rose from working-class Brooklyn to become the first Black person to run a major American philanthropic organization.

path-breaking

adjective

adjective: pathbreaking

1. pioneering; innovative.

   "their path-breaking work opened up a new era in cancer research"