And now, it's Miller time

Math Team Solves 248-Dimensional Puzzle

PALO ALTO, Calif. — An international team of mathematicians has cracked a 120-year-old puzzle that researchers say is so complicated that its handwritten solution would cover the island of Manhattan.

Do you think these guys went nuts, dove on each other in a big pile, and sprayed champagne all over each other---just like if they'd won the world series?

When stored in highly compressed form on a computer hard drive, the solution takes up 60 gigabytes — as much as the largest-capacity iPod can hold, or about 45 days of continuous music in MP3 format.

"It's like a Mount Everest of mathematical structures they've climbed now," said Brian Conrey, director of the institute.

The calculation does not have any obvious practical applications, but could help advance theoretical physics and geometry, researchers said.

A computer-generated map of the Lie group root system E8, a mathematical matrix which exists in 248 dimensions.

It's hard to be witty and try to find something nonsensical when the subject you're dealing with is so far beyond your brainpower that they might just as well have done the story in Klingon. I always enjoyed and was good at math; so I find this story interesting.

To me, it looks just like one of those felt drawing pieces that you find at Wal-mart or Michaels. As a matter of fact, I think JR bought one just like this and colored in the whole thing. He's like me, I love symmetry and seeing things that are perfectly patterned with all the colors being balanced.

(I wonder if Buckaroo Bonzai ever visited the 248th dimension. If you've never seen the movie, I'd recommend you check it out---The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eighth Dimension)