Here it is. Now go out there and calculate some trajectories.
Posted on 05/31/2012 2:07:01 PM PDT by South40
DRESDEN, Germany – A German 16-year-old has become the first person to solve a mathematical problem posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago.
Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.
Ray won a research award for his efforts and has been labeled a genius by the German media, but he put it down to "curiosity and schoolboy naivety."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Heinlein said it best:
“Always listen to experts. They will tell you what cannot be done and why.
“Then do it.”
Would love to see his calc sheets.
Amazing. One would think just for practical reasons, for example accurate artillery aiming, there would have been a solution although I guess the partial solutions were good enough.
Exactly. This sounds like a job for a super computer not a 16-year-old kid.
I am jealous. Extremely jealous.
Captain Stillman:
All right, soldier, let’s see how you fire that mortar.
Soldier with Mortar: What coordinates, sir?
Captain Stillman: [annoyed] Coordinates?
Soldier with Mortar:
Yes, sir, they determine where the mortar’s...
Captain Stillman:
Soldier, the army has spent a lot of money teaching you to fire that thing. Now set it and fire it.
Soldier with Mortar:
Sir, we don’t know where the shell’s gonna...
Captain Stillman:
Soldier. The only way to learn anything is to do it. Now fire the weapon!
Here it is. Now go out there and calculate some trajectories.
lol!
As a white-Indian he won’t be getting any affirmative action grants from Harvard.
Congratulations to a great kid. Nice self-effacing lad too.
“”When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself, ‘well, there’s no harm in trying,’” he said.”
“Despite not speaking a word of German when he arrived, Ray will this week sit Germany’s high school leaving exams, two years ahead of his peers.”
I came to America when I was 6 speaking only German. I blame my stepdad for not teaching me calculus when I was 6 like Shouryya Ray’s dad did. lol.
When I was six my mother taught me not to put a BB gun in my mouth. ;)
I know about a whole bunch of Germans, VC and Woggies who, in the last few miliseconds of their lives, thought we had that problem prety well solved....
Probably doesn't apply to both cannon ball and rifled projectile firings.
The latitude and direcction fired is also important, thanks to the Earth spinning around on its axis.
PS: My Naval specialty was gun Fire Control.
So what were you guys just faking it before this kid figured it your? ggggg
That being said, good job kid.
Computers calculate. They can't think.
Surprise! The newspaper got it wrong. The correct word is “naivete’” (The correct punctuation on the second “e” should be what is known as a “circumflex”, but I could not find out how to post that, it’s French).
Over / under...split the difference
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