Tim Worstall

Win $1 Million!

Would you like to win $1 million? Seriously, honest answer. Nothing to buy, no money to send.

Really. This isn’t a 419 or anything, this is a top notch, guaranteed real offer.

OK, ready? Can you play Minesweeper? Yes, that little game on every box running an MS operating system.

Good. Now, can you prove that this can be solved in polynomial time?

No, I didn’t know what that meant either. Even when a houseguest, Chairman of the Maths Department at a US university explained it to me I still didn’t really get it….nodded knowingly but obviously the movement made the meaning fall out.

But it is true. Go here and read this also.

Solve that and they’ll give you a million dollars.

In

3 responses

  1. The Pedant-General Avatar
    The Pedant-General

    Pshaw!
    My 6 year old solved this one ages ago:
    http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4452/1174/1600/RocketScientist_051010.jpg
    😉

    Reply
  2. P. Froward Avatar
    P. Froward

    Seems to me if the proof is that valuable you’d be better off keeping it and going into business for yourself.
    All that algorithm crap is a load of hooey anyway. “When in doubt, use brute force”, that’s my motto.

    Reply
  3. chris Avatar
    chris

    Is $1 million enough? By solving minesweeper in polynomial time then you can also break any Public Key encryption system in polynomial time (any NP Complete problem like minesweeper can be converted into any other, like RSA encryption). So does the prize money out weight the cash that you could have got by using your knowledge for nefarious ends.
    Tim adds: I’m under the impression that that is the point of the prize.

    Reply

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