And a very acedemic response to 'hehe our names say cock sucker'
this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025
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Just gonna leave us wondering about the algorithm, eh?
In arithmetic geometry, the Cox–Zucker machine is an algorithm created by David A. Cox and Steven Zucker. This algorithm determines whether a given set of sections[further explanation needed] provides a basis (up to torsion) for the Mordell–Weil group of an elliptic surface E → S, where S is isomorphic to the projective line.
Or was that just me?
I'm not wondering any less now.
I wasn’t very curious since according to them, the primary point of the paper was making a joke. I assumed the algorithm wasn’t groundbreaking or truly interesting, just something that could be published.
*nodding
Mmm.
Aha, yep. I know some of these words.
I love that this originated from NJ, via Princeton and Rutgers.
This was a deliberate choice by Cox and Zucker, who, as first-year graduate students at Princeton University in 1970, conceived of the idea of coauthoring a paper for the express purpose of enabling this joke. They followed through on it five years later, as members of the faculty at Rutgers University
Scientists are dorks
Wasn't there an actual NASA project called C3PO? I'm vaguely remembering a MattPatt video from Pre-FNAF days
Update: NASAS Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO)
It looked like it ended in 2013 but my memory was still right
Oh man, pre-FNAF? Thats the deep magic.
A thing to note is that they didn't name the algorithm. It was 5 years later when Charles Schwartz gave it that name
Some other mathematicians took another set of work by Cox and created the Cox Ring.
Fair enough