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Mathematicians Crack a Century-Old Problem That's Perfect For Your Next Party
(www.sciencealert.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2023
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TLDR if you invite over 25 people to a party, you can know that people can cluster in small groups where everyone in the small group knows each other, or everyone is meeting for the first time.
I've read the whole thing and I feel like there's something that's just assumed that everyone understands.
What exactly is the problem? Why do we care how many people know each other or don't? I'm so confused.
there's a lot of things that feel like they should be obvious, but are almost impossible to prove mathematically. it's the difference between seeing something happens, and understanding why it happens and proving that it will always happen (or not, and why)