Cook's Theorem

Cook’s Theorem, established by Stephen Cook in 1971, is a fundamental result in computer science that shows how many complex problems can be related to a specific type of problem called SAT (Boolean satisfiability). It proves that if we could efficiently solve SAT, then we could solve many other difficult problems quickly as well. This discovery helps us understand the limits of problem-solving with computers and explains why some problems are so hard to solve efficiently. In essence, it highlights a central challenge in computational complexity and the quest for more powerful algorithms.