Proof Page #6

I'm getting ahead of myself,

Oh, Jesus, look, enough bullshit,

You asked to see something,

Let's start with this,

I have roughed something out,

It's a general outline for a proof,

It's a major result,

It's important,

It's not finished, but, uh...

you can see where it's going,

Uh...

Here,

It's very rough,

- Was there any other work in here?

- No, That's the only...

Can I see it?

I'm sorry, I just...

So you wrote this incredible thing,

but you didn't tell anyone?

I'm telling you both now,

Catherine, I'm sorry,

but I just find this very hard to believe,

- Claire...

- This is Dad's handwriting,

It's not,

- It looks exactly like it,

- That is my writing,

I'm sorry,

Well, ask Hal, He's been

looking at Dad's writing all week,

- Well, I don't know,

- Hal, come on,

- I'm not a handwriting expert,

- Well, whose writing does it look like?

It looks... I don't know

what Catherine's handwriting looks like,

It looks like that,

OK,

You know what I think?

I think it's early,

and everybody's tired and not in

the best state to make emotional decisions,

- So let's just all take a breath,

- You don't believe me,

Well, I really don't know

anything about this,

Never mind,

I don't know why I expected you

to believe me about anything,

Could you tell us the proof?

And then that would show that it was yours,

You wouldn't understand it,

Well, tell it to Hal,

I mean, I could, We could sit down

and talk it through, It might take a while,

- You can't use the book,

- For God's sake, it's 40 pages long,

I didn't memorize it,

It's not a muffin recipe,

Oh, Jesus, this is stupid,

- Hal, tell her,

- Tell her what?

- Whose book is that?

- I don't know,

What is the matter with you?

You've been...

You've been going through this other stuff,

You know there's nothing

even remotely like that up here,

- Catherine...

- OK, OK,

OK, we'll sit down

and I'll talk you through the proof,

OK? OK?

If Claire will please

let me have my book back,

All right, OK, talk him through it,

- It still wouldn't prove that she wrote it,

- Why not?

Your dad may have written it

and explained it to you later,

I'm not saying he did,

I'm saying there's no proof that...

Of course there isn't, But come on!

He didn't write it, He couldn't have,

Even in the year he was well,

he couldn't work,

You know that,

You're supposed to be a scientist,

Here's my suggestion, I know

three or four guys at the department,

sharp, disinterested people,

who knew your dad's work,

- I'll take this to them,

- What?

I'll tell them that

we found something potentially major,

We're not sure of the authorship,

I'll sit with them,

We'll talk through it,

and we'll figure out what we've got,

It might take a couple days,

but then we'd have a lot more information,

I think that's an excellent suggestion,

- You can't,

- Catherine,

- You can't take it,

- I am not taking it,

- This is exactly what you wanted,

- Oh, come on, Jesus...

You don't waste any time, do you?

It's no hesitation,

You can't wait to show them

your brilliant discovery,

- I am trying to determine what this is,

- I'm telling you what it is,

- You don't know!

- I wrote it!

It is your father's handwriting!

At least, it looks an awful lot

like the writing in the other books,

Maybe your writing looks exactly like his,

I don't know,

It does look like his,

I mean, it's one of his notebooks,

the exact same kind he used,

I told you,

He gave it to me,

I didn't show this to anyone,

I wanted you to be the first to see it,

I didn't know I wanted that until last night,

- I trusted you,

- I know,

- Was I wrong?

- No,

I should've known that she

wouldn't believe me, but why don't you?

I know how hard it would be

to come up with something like this,

You'd have to be your dad

at the peak of his powers,

Just because you

and the rest of the geeks worshipped him

does not mean he wrote the proof,

He was the best, My generation

hasn't produced anything like him,

He revolutionized the field

twice before he was 22,

I am sorry, You took some classes

at Northwestern for a few months,

- My education wasn't at Northwestern!

- Even so, it doesn't matter,

It's too advanced,

I don't even understand most of it,

- You think it's too advanced?

- Yes,

It's too advanced for you,

You could not have done this work,

- But what if I did?

- Well, what if?

It would be a real disaster for you,

Wouldn't it?

You and the other geeks

who barely finished your PhD's,

who are marking time

doing lame research,

bragging about

the conferences they go to,

Wow,

Playing in an awful band and whining

that they're intellectually past it at 26,

because they are!

Catherine,

Catherine,

Oh!

When are you going to do

some mathematics with me?

I can't think of anything worse,

You want some Parmesan?

I'm all alone, I have important things

to say, and you're not helping,

- You used to love it,

- Not anymore,

You knew prime numbers

before you could read,

- Well, now I've forgotten,

- Don't be lazy, Catherine!

I haven't been lazy,

I've been taking care of you,

You dropped out of school,

You sleep till noon,

You eat junk, You don't work,

Dishes pile up in the sink,

- Some days you don't even get out of bed,

- Those are the good days,

They're fever days and you sweated them

away, You'll never know what work you lost

because you were moping, moping

in your unmade bad, Always moping,

Up until four in the afternoon sometimes,

Catherine,

I have you on my clock,

You know I'm right,

You know, I'm told by some very important

people, You know I know,

- I've lost a few days,

- How many?

- I don't know,

- I bet you do, I bet you count,

- Knock it off,

- How many days have you lost?

- A month, Around a month,

- Exactly,

- Dad, eat your dinner,

- How many?

- 33 days,

- Be precise, for Christ's sake,

I slept till noon today,

Make it 33 and a quarter days,

Yeah, all right,

- You're kidding,

- No,

- Amazing number,

- It's a depressing f***ing number,

If every day you lost were a year, it would

be a very interesting f***ing number,

- 33 and a quarter years is not interesting,

- Stop it, You know exactly what I mean,

- 1729 weeks,

- 1729, Great number,

The smallest number expressible as the

sum of two cubes in two different ways,

And 10 cubed plus 9 cubed...

Yes, we've got it, Thank you,

You see?

Even your depression

is mathematical,

Stop moping,

Do some work,

Take a look,

Catherine?

Katie, honey?

Catherine,

I figured out how to get

a lower bound for L,

Modification of Landau-Siegel,

What if this L had a Siegel zero?

You'd need an effective version,

Sh*t,

Catherine,

Catherine!

Catherine!

- What?

- Aah! Jesus!

God, you scared me,

What are you doing there?

Sorry, I just...

I wanted to...

It's wonderful news,

I think I've got it,

Catherine!

Katie,

- Katie, what is it?

- It's not mine, It's not mine!

- It's not mine, It's his, It's not mine,

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