Good Will Hunting matrix problem

[Martin]

http://www.math.harvard.edu/archive/21b_fall_03/goodwill/

 

a problem that Will Hunting (Matt Damon) solves in the movie

 

it's kind of interesting, a simple 4-point graph, the adjacency matrix for it

[fuhrerkeebs]

When I first say that movie I couldn't believe they were using such a simple problem to show his genius. Such a good movie tainted by such poor details like that...

[zaphod]

fermat was solved long before that movie was made. would have been good to have that in there just for fun.

 

i mean, hell... i was visiting a number theory professor a few months ago about a problem, and he seems to STILL be pushing the problem on students. apparently, he must still think that a simpler proof exists.

[srh]

Oh well...at least they used a real problem, with a real solution.

I've seen too many movies where they attempt to make a maths related problem look amazingly complicated by writing random symbols and values on a blackboard that makes no sense whatsoever...or maybe it does, and I don't understand it, but by the placement of symbols etc, I doubt it.