Think math is for nerds?

There are a million reasons you’re wrong.

A banker in Texas is offering $1 million to whoever can figure out a math problem that no one has been able to solve. You don't need to have aced advanced calculus to know that's a lot of money.

D. Andrew Beal initially offered $5,000 and the so-called Beal Prize when he introduced the award back in 1997. Over the years, he’s steadily increased the pot in the hopes of finding someone who could solve the problem.

However, much like why Donald Trump continues to wear his hair the way he does, this is also a conundrum that leaves people shrugging their shoulders in confusion.

So, what exactly is the hoopla all about? Hold onto your polynomials and try to remember just what a quadratic equation is because Beal wants someone to prove or disprove the following:

If Ax + By = Cz , where A, B, C, x, y and z are positive integers and x, y and z are all greater than 2, then A, B and C must have a common prime factor”

Take away the fact that saying that out loud makes you sound like any one of Charlie Brown's teachers and you probably wish you paid more attention in algebra, right?

In addition to being a banker, Beal loves math and hopes to show young people it’s a field worth following. With a million bucks on the line, he might be onto something.

[NPR]

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