Louisiana Teens Solve Trigonometry Puzzle Thought to Be Impossible for 2,000 Years

[Antknot]

Louisiana Teens Solve Trigonometry Puzzle Thought to Be Impossible for 2,000 Years



https://www.breitbart.com/education/202 ... 000-years/

[BigChiefin]

Louisiana Teens Solve Trigonometry Puzzle Thought to Be Impossible for 2,000 Years



https://www.breitbart.com/education/202 ... 000-years/

Pretty impressive when the students solve something the teacher never expected them to.

[Antknot]

Yeah. There might be hope for the younger generation after all.

[hawkfan8812]

[QillerDaemon]

An interpretation of the proof. *Not* the proof, as that hasn't actually been published yet.

[CHEEZY17]

An interpretation of the proof. *Not* the proof, as that hasn't actually been published yet.

So this isn't a real life "Good Will Hunting" story?

[QillerDaemon]

So this isn't a real life "Good Will Hunting" story?

Well, it does lead to the question of why nobody ever noticed this whole direction of thought before. There are literally thousands of proofs of the Pythagorean (aka Gougu) theorem by all manners of math. Even one of our past presidents, Garfield, came up with a proof by "squishing" rectangles into trapezoids. In this particular instance, this new proof is supposed to be a completely trigonometric proof, which ups the concept, making the proof in a real sense circular, using trig to prove trig. The only non-trig math involves two infinite series cancel each other out, but we don't yet know what the actual proof is, if that is even involved. The law of cosines can also be used to prove the Pythagorean theorem in a purely trig fashion, as that law can be shown by use of geometry, so the proof is independent of trig, making it more valid. Mathematicians are strange people.

[Animal]

watching that story on 60 minutes, the girl in the glasses reminded me of the character in that Nasa movie that they all went to for the math on landing on the moon.