Questions tagged [conjecture]

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3 votes
0 answers
114 views

Collatz letter to Professor Mays

According to a translation of the letter of Collatz to Professor Mays in 1980, Collatz mentions that he hasn't figured out whether the number n = 80 resulted in a cycle or not, concerning the collatz ...
Albert's user avatar
  • 131
38 votes
9 answers
7k views

Is there any example of a long-standing mathematical conjecture whose resolution did not require advanced knowledge?

Famous conjectures whose solutions took decades or centuries were usually resolved with the help of sophisticated theories and techniques unknown at the time the conjecture was first claimed. Is there ...
Leandro Caniglia's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
389 views

Who was that forgetful mathematician?

Who was the (Japanese?) mathematician who said in a lecture that a certain conjecture still remained to be proved, and one of the students present told him that he (the mathematician) had already ...
Maurice Mizrahi's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
325 views

What are some of the unsolved mathematical problems posed and stated clearly prior to the year 1900?

I chose year 1900 because of: "Hilbert's problems are twenty-three problems in mathematics published by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900. The problems were all unsolved at the time, and ...
Grešnik's user avatar
  • 141
10 votes
3 answers
318 views

When were mathematical conjectures first formulated and communicated?

Today it is common for mathematicians to formulate conjectures and publish/communicate them as a spur toward further research. An example is Goldbach's conjecture, posed in a letter from Goldbach to ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
156 views

Mathematicians with a history of conjecturing a lot

Of course, I could ask who conjectured the most, but conjectures can later be shown to be either true or false, so perhaps who has the most unresolved conjectures, in publication? More than that ...
Paul Burchett's user avatar