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Mathematicians Crack a Century-Old Problem That's Perfect For Your Next Party
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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.
I mean socially, do you want to go to a party and be the only person who doesn't know anyone? If you had to pick, I'd imagine you'd either want to catch up with a couple people you do know OR meet new people. The trouble gets when the crowd is a mix of old and new and people feel alienated.
That would be the ideal for meeting new people, would it not?
If everyone is already familiar with the others and talking about a niche topic and their inside jokes? No. That's not ideal.
At a party I'd rather either catch up with some mutual friends OR meet some new faces. I don't want to be stuck between my friend taking about niche topic and a couple other people I don't know who don't want to be in that conversation
That's a good way to think about the actual practical question this result can be used for.
For me, it was just fascinating to learn about Ramsey theorem in the first place, not even this new development. I've never heard of it. I couldn't find any specific practical applications for these type of results, but it is just so elegant.