Court Denies Physicist's Infamous Math Problem Is What Got Him Out of Traffic Ticket

SAN DIEGO (The Blaze/AP) -- The story of a physicist who used a mathematical proof -- aptly named the "Proof of Innocence" -- to get out of a traffic ticket went viral on the web earlier this week. Now, a San Diego court commissioner is denying that the scientist's physics paper had anything to do with her dismissing his $200 ticket.

(Related: 'The Proof of Innocence': Read the math problem that got one man out of a traffic ticket)

Dmitri Krioukov of the University of California, San Diego, used an equation-filled paper on the physics of a car in motion to successfully appeal a ticket for failure to stop, initial reports claimed.

Superior Court Commissioner Karen Riley says that's not true. She tells U-T San Diego that she listened to the physics argument but much of it went over her head. U-T San Diego reported several sources where Krioukov had said he felt he got through to his audience with the paper:

PhysicsCentral, a website, quoted Krioukov as saying, “The judge was convinced, and the officer was convinced as well.” The Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying Riley was “very smart” and that “she got my point, I think, very precisely.”

Riley says she found Krioukov not guilty because the officer who cited him wasn't close enough to the intersection to have a good view. Riley also points out to U-T San Diego that the case was closed in July 2011, but Krioukov waited to post his proof online until April 1 (yes, April Fools Day) of this year.