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Schoolboy cracks age-old maths problem
The Local.de ^ | Published: 23 May 12 07:03 CET | The Local.de

Posted on 05/26/2012 3:07:20 PM PDT by James C. Bennett

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To: 21twelve

That’s a lot of fun, actually. Some are easier than others, but so far (without calculator) I’ve hit up to 25.


61 posted on 05/27/2012 2:30:46 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: James C. Bennett

I’m gonna go ahead and call “bullshit”.

They don’t mention what the problem was. They certainly don’t mention what the solution was. The motion of a body in an elliptical orbit is pretty well understood, and calculations would either be transcendental, or not transcendental, which is what I suspect they are claiming — that he discovered that something they’ve always thought was transcendental, was not.

But they don’t tell us anything, therefore “bullshit”.

FYI, “transcendental” means that there is no simple algebraic solution, that “numerical methods” must be used to sneak up on the answer.


62 posted on 05/27/2012 2:43:20 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: Baynative

I dated a math professor once. He said that high schools were ruining kids by prematurely placing them in groups and using group think to solve problems. He said few of them graduated knowing basic math and he ended up having to teach them what they should already know.


63 posted on 05/27/2012 2:51:06 AM PDT by marsh2
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To: aliquando

Or a late bloomer like my son; sucked in school, but is flourishing in the Navy. Go figure!

BTW, I can still recite the Boy Scout oath, but your tagline helped!


64 posted on 05/27/2012 4:05:42 AM PDT by pingman ("Human history seems logical in afterthought, but a mystery in forethought." (Strauss & Howe))
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To: Jonty30

Navier and Stokes created equations.

But those equations have no closed-form solution.

Other articles I’ve found while searching on this kid’s name seem to suggest he’s found a closed-form solution for some equation that previously had none.


65 posted on 05/27/2012 4:40:04 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: MacMattico

don’t know never saw Good Will Hunting

There is a good book on Rammamujan called, “The Man Who Knew Ininity”,


66 posted on 05/27/2012 6:40:57 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Trod Upon
Many of us, my self included, can find that we are confining ourselves to our own conservative bubble. So, I try to make a point of listening to our local progressive station a couple of times a week to keep myself in check.

What I hoped to do was find balance in the things I may have accepted without question. What I found is quite the contrary.

You mentioned Psychological Projection that is the entire basis of a show called "Ring of Fire" that plays on the weekend. This weekend they went into a fever pitch talking about how vile and racist the Tea Party demonstrations were with their pictures of Obama with a Hitler mustache and then laughed saying conservatives are all old baby boomers who will soon be dead taking the republican party with them.

During the week I've caught Randi Rhodes, Stephanie Miller, Norman Goldman and of course, Ed Schultz. All of them get very angry and hateful when they talk about how angry and hateful they think conservatives are.

I've heard Mike Malloy and a lawyer from Denver named David Sirota present some balance arguments that show a different side of issues that I have accepted as valid. They haven changed my mind completely, but they've moved the needle at times.

Most of what these people present is less than valid and they are only preaching to a very small choir, but I urge everyone I know and everyone here to try to check in to a progressive stations once in a while just to see what these people are saying. The worst that can happen is it helps prepare us for the talking points we will hear in our local conversations.

67 posted on 05/27/2012 9:17:18 AM PDT by Baynative (REMEMBER: Without America there is no free world!)
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To: aliquando

Heh. That’s we say to all the public school kids.


68 posted on 05/27/2012 1:39:42 PM PDT by WriteOn (Truth)
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To: WriteOn

I guess you do not have a kid with a learning disability. Did you stay at home and teach your kids?


69 posted on 05/27/2012 7:20:43 PM PDT by aliquando (A Scout is T, L, H, F, C, K, O, C, T, B, C, and R.)
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To: DrewsDad; South Hawthorne

Left the range as is, scored a 25.

I like that site, thanks!

For others interested in such practice, try “First in Math”

http://www.firstinmath.com/

Subscription required, check with your son’s school to see if they have an account you can use.


70 posted on 05/27/2012 7:33:35 PM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: 007drizzt; SpaceBar; DuncanWaring
See Klackity's first comment and the following comments by him and others on this thread.
71 posted on 05/28/2012 3:26:54 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: LibWhacker

Thanks for the reference.

In college, I averaged one math course per semester.

In most of them, I sweated blood to get a “C”.


72 posted on 05/28/2012 5:40:53 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

That’s the thing about math. Almost everything depends on a mastery of prerequisite material, and once you take a course and fail to absolutely master it, everything that follows and depends on it is going to be a struggle.

I guarantee that if you were to start over at ground zero, say elementary algebra, and concentrate on studying as hard as needed to get straight As in every course, you’d get them no matter how far you went in mathematics. All the way to a PhD, if you wanted.

I’m convinced that anyone without brain damage and possessing moderate intelligence and an unbreakable will, who has the work ethic and refuses to allow himself to become so discouraged that he gives up, can go all the way to a PhD in math, getting top grades all the way. There are a lot of people with 120 IQs walking around with their doctorates in math.


73 posted on 05/28/2012 7:35:02 AM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: James C. Bennett
I was planning on studying maths, but computers sciences, biologies, and physic attracted me even more.

OOPS, I mean, 'even mores'.

74 posted on 05/28/2012 7:40:04 AM PDT by Lazamataz (People who resort to Godwin's Law are just like Hitler.)
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To: Lazamataz
What does a mathematician do when he is constipated?

He works it out with a pencil.

75 posted on 05/28/2012 7:42:34 AM PDT by central_va ( I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Lazamataz

LOL!
.
.
.

Outside the US, ‘mathematics’ is shortened to ‘maths’ and not ‘math’... Just saying!


76 posted on 05/28/2012 8:00:03 AM PDT by James C. Bennett (An Australian.)
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To: central_va

(erupted into giggling...) :)


77 posted on 05/28/2012 8:11:04 AM PDT by Lazamataz (People who resort to Godwin's Law are just like Hitler.)
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