Polymath Project

The Polymath Project is a special way for mathematicians to work together to solve tough math problems. It started in January 2009 when a mathematician named Timothy Gowers posted a problem on his blog. He asked his readers to share their ideas and progress toward solving it.

This idea worked well, and it led to a new answer for a very hard math problem. Since then, the Polymath Project has grown into a way to use online teamwork to solve many different kinds of math problems. It shows how people can work together across the world to find solutions to challenges that are very difficult to solve alone. The project uses a process called crowdsourcing, where many people share their thoughts and work together online. This has helped mathematicians find new ways to tackle mathematical puzzles that had been stuck for a long time.

Origin

In January 2009, a mathematician named Gowers started a social experiment on his blog. He picked an important math problem that hadn’t been solved yet and asked his readers to help work on it together in the comments section. He wondered if many people working together online could solve tough math problems, and this idea led to the creation of the Polymath Project.

Projects for high school and college

Since it began, the Polymath Project has worked with the MIT PRIMES program and the Art of Problem Solving to start a "Crowdmath" project. This project uses the same idea as the Polymath Project: that many people working together can solve tough math problems. It is especially for high school and college students, giving them a chance to work on real, unsolved math problems. Students from all over the world who are good at math are invited to join. Older students can help as mentors but should not give away the answers. The first Crowdmath project started on March 1, 2016.

Problems solved

Polymath1

The first problem tackled by the Polymath Project, called Polymath1, was to find a new way to prove a mathematical idea called the density version of the Hales–Jewett theorem. People discussed this problem on a blog by Timothy Gowers and another by Terence Tao. After seven weeks, Gowers said the problem was "probably solved," and many people kept working on it for months after that. Over 40 people helped with Polymath1, and they wrote papers under the name D. H. J. Polymath.

Polymath5

Polymath5 tried to solve a tricky math problem called the Erdős discrepancy problem. It worked for most of 2010 and again in 2012 but didn’t solve it then. However, in 2015, Terence Tao used ideas from Polymath5 along with new math work to finally solve the problem.

Polymath8

Polymath8 had two parts to study gaps between prime numbers. Polymath8a aimed to find smaller gaps between primes and finished with a gap of 4,680. Polymath8b tried to find even smaller gaps and ended with a gap of 246. Both parts led to papers published under the name D. H. J. Polymath.

Publications

The Polymath Project has led to many important papers in mathematics. These papers solve tough problems by working together online. Some of these papers discuss special patterns in numbers, new ways to find prime numbers, and other exciting areas of math.

The work from these projects is shared in journals and online, sometimes using the name "Polymath" and sometimes using the real names of the people who helped.