Eight-year-old physics genius enters university

Korea Herald ^ | 2005-11-05 | Hwang Si-young

[Netheron]

You got that right.

[P-Marlowe]

This is scary. A child that age should be having a childhood.

[P-Marlowe]

My ignorant teachers never understood my brilliant theory that 1+1 = 3.

My computer thinks that 1+1 equals 10 and that 1+1+1 equals 11 and that 10+1 also equals 11.

What should I do?

[sourcery]

My computer thinks that 1+1 equals 10 and that 1+1+1 equals 11 and that 10+1 also equals 11. What should I do?

The following exception has been encountered: You have to ask a question with a yes/no answer.

[TChad]

Dance for your supper, monkey boy! Dance!
Why did you stop dancing?

[jamily]

Kids like that tend to think that studying/practicing IS part of childhood:) The whole concept of tossing a ball or running around with no purpose is silly.. sort of like coloring by number. What's the point? You cannot force a child like that to play like a typical child, not without a bad reaction. They will close down even more to what you would consider normalcy. Or - and this is even worse, maybe - they will force themselves to adapt to a societal norm to please the parent or teacher but in the process, lose some of the drive in their interest area. Leaves them somewhat lost as to their place in the world.

[operation clinton cleanup]

What should I do?

Get a new computer!

[Lady Heron]

I hope Kim Jong-Il doesn't get a hold of this kid...

I would be more worried about him reaching adulthood sane. Prodigies many times do not turn out well.

[Lady Heron]

The exceptions seem to be in the world of music for some reason.

No, no exception there either.

[B-Chan]

He surprised professors by explaining the Schroedinger equation, which is of central importance to the theory of quantum mechanics.

Jaw-drop.

Mutant. In a good way.

Maybe he'll get his doctorate before the educational establishment has the time to crush all the creativity and imagination out of him. Put the kid to work on wormholes and warp drive, stat.

[SunkenCiv]

Great. Isn't it bad enough to have crack heads confined to the ground?

[Myrddin]

My son has a buddy who is apparently very bright. He is an obsessive/compulsive who manifests that characteristic by acquiring every computer certification that exists. He performs floating point math in his head faster than you can key it into a calculator. Unfortunately, he lacks life experience outside computer certification. He will pretend great knowledge about a certain topic, but fails to provide any depth of understanding when queried further. His knowledge of history and philosophy reads like a list of DNC talking points.

The young man in the article is clearly gifted, but he still needs to exercise his skills in composition and communication. A gifted scientist who can not communicate his knowledge to others less gifted will not go very far in life.

[Amish with an attitude]

"how to lie with figures and how to make figures lie"

He's probably employed by the Congressional Budget Office by now.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

A child that age should be having a childhood.

"Childhood" never existed except in parts of the First World in the latter 20th Century. It is a novel concept.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Actually, from what I read, most of these child geniuses are totally burnt out by the time they're 20 and are never heard from again.

I gave science lectures to 5th and 6th graders when I was in the 1st grade but I was already burnt out by his age :-/

[samtheman]

I've always held that there are 3 kinds of people in this world - those that can do math and those that can't.

lol

[dalereed]

I gave up that play crap long before I started school, had a paper rout when I was 7 and was into building hot rods and engines by 8 in fact taught myself to weld and channeled the neighbors 32 coupe when I was 8 and went 128 at the drags in a flat head rail when I was 12.

Now at 68 I can look back and say I didn't miss anything.

[eddie willers]

My cat's genius exceeds that of Einstein.....but unfortunately he is lacking in his abililty to communicate with humans.

And no thumbs!

(actually...that's a good thing)

[LibWhacker]

OMG, he's Korean??? We should kidnap him before the North Koreans do. Lock him up somewhere in the basement of the Pentagon and teach him all the physics we can.

[Syberyenta]

Someone should find a good commercial use for Electroweak theory first.

Every vacuum cleaner I have ever owned was an Electroweak.