The problem with a happy ending

on May 28, 2024 at 6:30 pm

Speaker : Jean-Paul Delahaye

Jean-Paul Delahaye (Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Lille) Respondent Bernard Maitte (Professor Emeritus, University of Lille)

Mathematician Ester Klein discovered a statement about the distribution of points in a plane, affirming the presence of an inevitable order. Her result, presented to Hungarian mathematicians Paul Erdös and Gorge Szekeres, was then generalized. The meeting around this problem led to the marriage of Gorges Szekeres and Esther Klein, prompting Erdös to name the enigma the “happy ending problem”. Gorge and Esther, married in 1937, lived happily ever after until August 28, 2005, when they both died within an hour of each other. Today, an incredible series of geometric and combinatorial results, showing that order is inevitable, keep alive the memory of their happy encounter.

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Cité Scientifique - amphitéâtre de l'Espace Culture