Make Money Solving Math Problems

Have you ever heard of Grigory Perelman? He's an unemployed Russian guy who supposedly solved a math problem called the "Poincare Conjecture," and was offered a one million dollar reward for doing so. I don't know who the people are who offered this money. I assume they are extremely rich people who have nothing better to do. But the story doesn't end there. No. This supposed genius decided he didn't want the million dollar prize, and has refused to accept it.

Ok, well, he's a wealthy guy who decided to pass the money to some charity right? Well, no. Actually he lives on welfare in a tiny apartment in St. Petersburg with his elderly mom, and hasn't had a job in several years. Also, he looks like a homeless serial killer.

This man is a genius

The Poincare Conjecture is a somewhat difficult math problem dreamed up by a crazy guy named Poincare back in 1904, before calculators were invented, and before anybody found out that math was important. A few people tried to solve it, but they all got busy with family responsibilities and fixing mowers and stuff, and after a while everybody more or less forgot about Poincare and his conjecture. So for 99 years the whole thing was forgotten. Then, in 2003, Grigory Perelman posted a solution on the Internet. It took mathematicians seven years to resolve his solution and verify that it was correct. Then, in early 2010, they announced that he would be given the million dollar prize. 

For the past several months he has been "thinking about it," and just now decided that he doesn't want it. This does not seem like a genius move. 

But it does open a door for anyone who likes doing math. I don't know what they are going to do with this prize money. My guess, since the whole thing seems to be happening in Russia, is that the government will come and get him and nobody will ever see him or the money again, and eventually he will build a nuclear reactor. So this money is a lost cause. 

However, there are other math problems out there that no one has solved yet, and which have serious money associated with them. I spent several years studying math in high school, so I am a world class mathematician. There is a wikipedia page that lists six unsolved problems that have million dollar prizes attached. The way I see it, I could probably solve all six of these in a few hours, but I would like to partner with another skilled mathematician just in case I run into trouble with the train that left Chicago at 4:00 pm. I always have trouble with those train problems, and I assume, since these problems are hard, that they include LOTS of trains. I will gladly split the money with you 60/40. 

If you are a world class mathematician, and would like to partner with me to solve these problems, please email me, and we will work out a time to get together. Tuesdays are usually good. I hope we don't need to show our work.