How smart do I have to be to do research-level mathematics?

3.14 smart

Above 120 iq

Probably pretty damn smart when you consider how mined out the field is.

>>8836792
That's many

>>8836797

It's true that the low-lying fruit gets picked bare. But there's a lot of unsolved problems:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unsolved_problems_in_mathematics

There's like 2-300 problems here. Odds are, at least /one/ of these is fairly straightforward, requiring only some one stroke of innovation or "trick".

The hard part is doing three or-so steps, all in sequence:

-actually picking a problem which is amenable to solution by a 105-120 IQ with appropriate education,
-hitting on the necessary trick,
-actually doing the work, and finally
-presenting your result BEFORE the other guy/not getting scooped/making positive-sure that people know that it was you who did it. This is notoriously difficult in mathematics (the old Newton/Leibniz chestnut, but also Cardano/Tartaglia, and common re-hashing/re-discovering of previously established results).

>>8836796
300 years ago maybe, nowadays it's 150+ or go home.

>>8836862
Nah. It really depends on your level of motivation and interest in whatever you're researching. 120 plus is fine if you have both of the above. I'm a PhD math student myself and I got an iq test when I was a kid, I think I was like 127 or something.

You have to be smart and you have to be able to work extremely hard.

If you read about the great scientist, every thing they have in common is that they all were able to work almost all the time. If you are motivated and serious you don't need to be 150 IQ level

>>8836790
depends how much of an impact you expect to make. new theories are being developed all the time, and there are tons of new, little problems you can work on that aren't particularly demanding and just require someone to spend some time on them and work out all the details. sure, a genius could solve the same problem in a fraction of the time and produce a better result, but the reality is there are way more problems than geniuses.

iq of 170 is needed to pass intro to linear algebra m8

>>8836790
I know many mathematicians(Phds) I wouldn't dare call smart.

Proving theorems is more a matter of being in the right place at the right moment than brain power.

Many advances in mathematics are not even proving theorems, just suggesting new things.

t. mathematician

>>8837562
>>8836790
As a conclusion, stop being a self degrading fag and do whatever you like. That's /sci/, not /r9k/ and, hopefully, not /pol/, for some time more.