Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The First Problem Solved by Computer: Four Color Theorem

From LifeHacker:
"Even during the 1970s, when computers were harder to come by and problems were weightier, computers were routinely brought in to solve things for the people who had access to them. But prior to 1976, they weren't required to prove any math problem. They just made things easier. That is, until Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken used a computer to prove a 124-year-old conjecture. In 1852, Francis Guthrie came up with what's known as the Four-Color Theorem. That theorem stated that no map needed more than four colors to delineate territories. Generally, different countries, states, or provinces, were given different colors on a map. If a mapmaker were armed with four different colors, there was no territory, or set of them, that could be arranged in such a way that two adjoining territories were the same color."
I think the first actual use (not problem solving) of a computer must have been to start a flame war, play solitaire, or look at "adult" content.

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