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ilan vardi's user avatar
ilan vardi's user avatar
ilan vardi's user avatar
ilan vardi
  • Member for 14 years, 10 months
  • Last seen more than 10 years ago
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Generalization of the shakehands/condom puzzle?
I first heard the condom problem from Vasek Cvatal who phrased it in the crudest and most explicit terms possible. That way, it stuck in my mind and I solved it 5 years later. He's a very famous combinatorialist, for example, he heard of the Art Gallery Problem at a conference and solved it in a day.
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Generalization of the shakehands/condom puzzle?
Given that the raison d'etre of this paper is sitting on the toilet deciding with which roll to wipe, I would say that it refers directly to bodily functions which are not usually associated with higher intellectual pursuits.
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Generalization of the shakehands/condom puzzle?
OK, I see your point. But since physical violence is even more reprehensible than consensual sex, I suggest we start rewriting mathematical history by renaming the Killing form in Lie Algebra as it brings to mind, at least to me, the disturbing imagery of the Cambodian Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge genocide. I suggest calling it the Friendship form. I could continue with the Fock representation, but if that brings something distracting and uncomfortable to mind, then I suggest that it is your mind that is to blame as it is too easily distracted by a certain imagery.
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Generalization of the shakehands/condom puzzle?
Donald Knuth wrote a paper called "The toilet paper problem" and had no problems getting it published. I think this is indication that it is not the explicit nature that disturbs Americans but just the sexual nature.
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