Jay sent me an unbelievable link. Paul and Jack Abad presented this list of 100 greatest theorems at a math conference in 1999. Their criteria for the greatness of a theorem was
1) the place the theorem holds in the literature
2) the quality of the proof
3) the unexpectedness of the result
I had fun looking for my favorites: denumerability of the rationals, the non-denumerability of the continuum, and the incompleteness theorems. Jeff and Lee will be happy to see that the infinitude of the primes made it (#11). The list has dates for all the theorems, and links to proofs for some of them. Any guess as to what's number 1?
pic from Boston Bill
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1 comment:
I like #59 on the list the best:
"The Laws of Large Numbers" credited to "many".
HA! That's awesome.
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