[FOM] a postscript to my reply to bob solovay

Gabriel Stolzenberg gstolzen at math.bu.edu
Tue Apr 18 18:40:39 EDT 2006


                           Explicit bounds

   After thinking more about Bob's questions, I feel remiss in not
having thought to make the point that, although I have no record of
any of them saying so, Littlewood et al almost surely wanted to see
an "explicit" bound.  And that, for this reason, they might not have
felt any better about the one Bill Hruschka read out of Littlewood's
proof than about the apparent lack of any bound in that proof.

                    Constructive numerical analysis

   Also, rethinking the matter now, I regret not having asked Bill
to attempt to get an explicit upper bound for the one in his thesis.
It's not that we wanted to see one, as Littlewood did.  But I would
have loved to see how an attempt to get one would have played out.
I like to think that it would have been an illuminating exercise in
constructive numerical analysis.  Perhaps it's not too late to find
out.

    With best regards,

   Gabriel Stolzenberg




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