In 1905, the English translation of the French mathematician Henri Poincaré’s book Science and Hypothesis was published. Chapter 2 was titled “Mathematical Magnitude and Experiment.” In this chapter Poincaré reintroduced a new branch of mathematics called algebraic topology. Following the section on the mathematical continuum of several dimensions, Poincaré wrote: The magnitudes need not always be measurable; there is, for instance, one branch of geometry independent of the measure of magnitude, in which we are only concerned with knowing, for example, if, on a curve ABC, the point B is between the points A and C, and in which it is immaterial whether the arc AB is equal to or twice the arc BC. This branch is called Analysis Situs. Its continued developments by Poincaré and others led to his earlier conjecture of 1904, which is now known as the Poincaré Conjecture for 3-manifold. It is one of the 7 Millennium Problems, which is now presumed solved by the somewhat elusive and reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman. In 2006, he declined the Fields Medal, the Nobel Prize equivalence for mathematics. He also will not accept the $1 Million reward offered by Clay Institute, sponsor of the Millennium Prize.
Poincaré (1854-1912) was the first to look for topological invariants applicable to higher dimensional manifolds. He invented the 3rd result of the classification theorem in addition to Euler characteristic and orientability. Although the Poincaré Conjecture was proved true for 5 and higher dimensions by Stephen Smale in 1960 and for 4-manifold by Michael Freedman in 1981, the 3-manifold eluded most mathematicians but not until Perelman began posting papers in the Internet indicating his proofs and solutions for the 100-year plus old problem.


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