[leif]

Somewhere, deep in a dark corner of my heart, I hope and pray that this paper is correct, just so we can keep and revere the immortal words "I am pleased to announce a proof that P is not equal to NP, which is attached in 10pt and 12pt fonts."

[acangiano]

The font was specified to indicate that this proof, indeed, fits into the margin.

[baddox]

But is it truly marvelous?

[contextfree]

It's not big and professional like GNU's fonts.

[ratsbane]

Sounds a little like the line in Watson and Crick's first paper about DNA. They said "It has not escaped our notice..." to introduce the idea that the subject of the paper might be the secret to life, the universe, and everything.

[pclark]

I'm not academic - can you explain why he mentioned the font sizes? Why are they relevant?

[xsmasher]

I find the sentence comical in its humility and practicality; I assume leif did too. Acangiano puts it in the same league as Fermat's famous note in the margin of his copy of Arithmetica.

I assume he included the paper in two font sizes to suit the reader's preference; no deeper meaning.

[leif]

Yeah, basically I found it funny juxtaposing the announcement of such a magnificent result (should it end up proving true) with such a mundane, utilitarian comment.

[fmora]

True, some of those intellectuals must have poor eyesight due to a lifetime of reading.

[robryan]

It does feel a little intentional on the part of the author to give off a "all in a days work" type attitude.

[wensing]

Happy to see it in my collegiate font of choice, Book Antiqua.

[celoyd]

Book Antiqua is a knockoff of Palatino, which in turn is the titling variant of Aldus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldus_(typeface) . It should read a little more smoothly.

[mkramlich]

If he can also prove it in 7pt font THEN I'll be impressed. Until then, meh.