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MathsMystery behind Cleo finally got solved. It was a man :(
Posted February 17, 2025 by NastasyaFillipovna in STEM

I think very few people here know this story, but I was quite inspired by it.

Cloe is/was a very notorious personality in Mathematics StackExchange circle some 15 years ago, famous for answering some really whacky integral questions, without proof. She got quite famous for it, and people debated who she was, how did she even came up with such answers which took others days, if not weeks to prove.

Here is a very very good writeup about the whole saga,from HobbyDrama

And people still worshipped(?) her in mathematical circles.

Even in women's circles : https://www.reddit.com/r/womenintech/comments/1ic4186/cleo_a_math_icon/

She got soo famous, that people are still debating who she was, and trying to figure it out, 10 years after she stopped posting.

Until last week or so, where we finally discovered who was behind all this.

The TLDR version is :

  • He was a Man.

  • He used to come up with whacky integrals himself, which he knew what the answer would be, by changing some parameters of known integrals. Didn't wanna prove it himself, so posted on StackExchange. Didn't got the traction, so created fake accounts. Posted questions from one account, answered in a terse way from another ( Cleo ) account.

  • People wanted to prove "her" wrong, ie how could some rando girl be this good at maths, so took weeks to post actual proof of his integrals.

Here is a full breakdown of all the "investigations" that lead to his identity at last being made public.

4 comments

jelliknightFebruary 18, 2025

Its kind of genius, harnessing the irresistable urge of butthurt men to prove a terse women wrong.

notsofreshfeelingFebruary 17, 2025

I like his sense of humor.

NastasyaFillipovna [OP]February 17, 2025

That's why I wanted her to be a real person. It divided the math community, especially people over at StackExchange soo much. It was fun to follow.

He played the long con of "proving the wrong answer so everyone would try to prove you wrong"

proudcatladyFebruary 18, 2025

Damn. I was afraid of this.