Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 190 - 102: Eyes as Bright as Torches

There’s a joke online about amateur mathematicians.

It basically tells the story of someone posting online, claiming that they spent decades creating an important mathematical theory, and then publishing their proof process on the internet.

As it turns out, a real mathematician took a look at it and told him on the forum that this theorem was actually proven by a mathematician over eighty years ago. Anyone who’s studied mathematics in graduate school would know this theorem and just use the conclusion directly.

Whether this joke is true or not, it at least shows that these days, learning mathematics first requires a solid foundation.

This is why after discussions with Xue Song, Tian Yanzhen set a series of systematic courses for Qiao Yu to make his knowledge more structured. But when Tian Yanzhen discovered that after just one night of reading Peter Schultz’s paper, Qiao Yu had his own ideas and insights, he abandoned this decision.

The reason is actually quite simple.

For example, people often see claims online of someone proving the Goldbach Conjecture. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Goldbach Conjecture is "proven" by math enthusiasts around the world hundreds to thousands of times a year.

However, those claiming to have proved the Riemann Conjecture drastically drop by ninety percent. As for P=NP?, the turbulence problems involved in the N-S equations, and so on, these are even rarer.

This is the threshold of mathematics.

If you don’t understand the problem itself and can’t describe it accurately, there’s no way to talk about solving it.

As for the things Peter Schultz studies, you won’t even find math enthusiasts trying to "troll" online. Even fewer mathematicians dare to do so.

The threshold is too high, making it difficult to find opportunities for others to offer differing opinions or debates because the majority of people find it hard to understand the core ideas of his research, let alone offer criticism or advice.

In a sense, Peter Schultz’s research on mathematics itself challenges many mathematicians’ traditional views on this type of problem. Yet, it has to be admitted that his achievements, like the construction of the perfect reprojective geometry, indeed provide new tools and methods for solving previously intractable problems.

But this guy Qiao Yu actually understood Peter Schultz’s paper.

Honestly, as far as Tian Yanzhen and Xue Song are concerned, this is quite unreasonable in mathematical terms. But it made them see the limitless potential in Qiao Yu.

At this moment, Qiao Yu’s performance is probably just one of those infinite possibilities.

In just one night, he found a method that seemingly greatly simplifies the precise estimation of the upper bound of rational points on special curves.

Of course, "seemingly" is the keyword here, because Qiao Yu directly utilized the framework set up by Peter Schultz, creating five mathematical tools in one go and successfully solving the problem.

The problem is, although he thinks these newly created mathematical tools must be correct, he currently cannot fully prove even one of them from a logical perspective.

In other words, these mathematical theorems, which hope to solve a world-class problem, cannot be proven by him, so it’s hard to say whether these theorems actually hold.

So theoretically, he just proposed five non-mainstream mathematical conjectures.

Useful or not, at least three large sheets of manuscript paper were filled, just handy to take to the lecture for discussion with everyone.

With these things in hand, Qiao Yu felt that this was no longer just basic politeness. It was practically a grand courtesy, paying the highest respect to the professors holding the lecture on behalf of Huaxia.

After all, not only did he research the other’s paper, but he also found a method that seemed applicable to solve similar problems, proving that he had undergone an extremely meticulous thought process.

As long as you don’t mind the minor detail of temporarily being unable to prove them, everything is perfect.

And it only took him a little over an hour to construct this set of tools.

Qiao Yu came to understand the fun that those great mathematicians had when they created a conjecture.

It’s probably that type of mindset where he feels this mathematical theory is the way it is, but he can’t prove it, so whoever wants to try proving it can go ahead.

Qiao Yu even fantasized about one day becoming a great mathematician like Riemann or Fermat, recognized worldwide, and then coming up with a particularly awesome, particularly useful mathematical conjecture that makes one feel like it would be worth dying for to know.

Then he would secretly prove it himself in private, hide the manuscript away, and leave it in his will.

Next, he would collaborate with a wealthy and famous mathematical research institute like the Clay Research Institute, and they would jointly put out a large sum of money as a bounty. Whoever could prove his conjecture could take the money immediately!

When everyone’s enthusiasm is stirred up but they find they can’t actually prove it, he’d watch the commotion from the side, occasionally stepping out to encourage everyone or drop some cryptic clues.

Until after he passes away, when his will is revealed, the world’s mathematicians would find out that this conjecture was actually a theorem that he had proven long ago; he just didn’t tell everyone while alive, just for fun.

And naturally, the prize money would go to him, though he’s dead, it could be left as an inheritance to the next generation.

Honestly, just imagining it made Qiao Yu feel thrilled and even somewhat blood-boiling.

And in reality, he was only three steps away from realizing this fun thing.