Prime Solver

A fundamental problem had stymied mathematicians for centuries. Then a former Subway cashier announced he’d solved it.

What does a eureka moment look like? It’s usually more subtle than having an apple fall from a tree, striking a young scientist in the head. In fact, you might watch the whole thing unfold without realizing anything took place at all.

That’s what happened on July 3, 2012, when a middle-aged Chinese man passed a seemingly uneventful half-hour in the backyard of his friend’s suburban home in Pueblo, Colo. The man, Yitang Zhang, spent most of the time pacing, occasionally glancing at the golf course that abutted the yard or gazing toward Pikes Peak and other mountains in the distance. He didn’t say a word, and after 30 minutes he went inside the house, perhaps to find relief from the heat and blazing sun.

Zhang had just solved one of the most celebrated problems in mathematics, a version of the twin prime conjecture. (A conjecture’s a mathematical hypothesis with some basis to it, not just a wild guess.) He didn’t bother telling his friend what he’d accomplished, as it would have been rather difficult to explain, even if Zhang was inclined to talk about his work, which he’s not. The effort of trying to get a layperson to grasp the miraculous, though exceedingly technical, sleight of hand he’d just pulled off would likely have ruined the moment of private exaltation Zhang was experiencing. “I didn’t tell him anything,” he says. “It was unnecessary to tell him...

Culled from discovermagazine.com