Article about Kenneth Appel dead on arrival

8 points

13 years ago

I've tried submitting this article:

    http://www.i-programmer.info/news/112-theory/5791-kenneth-appel-of-four-color-theorem-proof-dies.html

... but I guess the domain name is on the forbidden list because the submission is DOA. However, Appel was one of two mathematicians who produced a computer-assisted proof of the Four Color Theorem, and as such I think he deserves an item here on HN.

Graph coloring is used in many areas of computing, most notably perhaps in register allocation. The Four Color Theorem is many people's first introduction to questions that arise in Pure Math, and the fact that the proof uses a computer in a non-trivial way is noteworthy in itself.

So I've submitted this in the hope that at least a few people will notice it and take a moment to appreciate the significance.

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