Road Coloring Problem Solved
A mathematical puzzle that baffled the top minds in the esoteric field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has been cracked — by a 63-year-old immigrant who once had to work as a security guard.
Avraham Trahtman, a mathematician who also toiled as a laborer after moving to Israel from Russia, succeeded where dozens failed, solving the elusive "Road Coloring Problem."
The conjecture essentially assumed it's possible to create a "universal map" that can direct people to arrive at a certain destination, at the same time, regardless of starting point. More
Trahtman, an immigrant to Israel from Yekaterinburg, Russia, solved a problem that had been stumping mathematicians for over 30 years. When it was all said and done, the professor said "The solution is not that complicated. It's hard, but it is not that complicated. Some people think they need to be complicated. I think they need to be nice and simple."
The solution has practical implications in highway navigation, data storage, file systems, network architectures and user interfaces. What is as striking as the solution is the statement made by Trahtman that ‘Solutions need to be nice and simple.’ That should be the ultimate goal of design in general, to take the complexities of everyday life and reduce them to simple, understandable navigations.
It’s easy to make things complicated. But it’s difficult to make things simple. Perhaps simplicity is one of the most challenging problems of our time.
| Here is how the puzzle works. Start at any point and use a 3 word pattern to describe directions to the yellow or green end points. An example of a 3 word pattern is 'red - blue - blue', since this puzzle uses two colors only. Repeat the pattern until you arrive at your destination. Directions to Yellow = "Blue - Red - Red" Directions to Green = "Blue - Blue - Red" |
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