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Stanford Lecture: Don Knuth—"A Conjecture That Had To Be True" (2017)

Stanford Online · lecture · Watch on YouTube

Recreational & visual mathAlgorithms & data structuresUniversity lectures & courses

What it is

Donald Knuth's 2017 Christmas Tree Lecture at Stanford about a combinatorial geometry problem whose computed numbers matched a striking formula. He tells the story of the conjecture and its sequel.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN fans love it for Knuth's humor and for how he makes open math problems feel approachable, and it is often cited for details like dancing links and counting rectangle subdivisions.

  • 1 people recommended it
  • 5 different months
  • 2 strong recommendations
  • first 2017, last 2023

What HN commenters said

  1. “it's always a pleasure for me to see Knuth's talks or read his work”

    Knuth makes open math problems feel approachable.

    svat, 2017-12 · Strong recommendation · in “Donald Knuth's Christmas Lecture: A Conjecture That Had To Be True [video]”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: donald knuth, combinatorics, christmas lecture, dancing links, conjecture

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