[dba-Tech] While You're Up, Son, Get Me a Beer

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Mon May 28 12:27:08 CDT 2012


Impressive. This fellow will be heard of again.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2012 9:57 AM
To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues
Subject: [dba-Tech] While You're Up, Son, Get Me a Beer

German teen Shouryya Ray solves 300-year-old mathematical riddle posed by
Sir Isaac Newton

*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.

Mr 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".

"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.

Mr Ray's family moved to Germany when he was 12 after his engineer father
got a job at a technical college. He said his father instilled in him a
"hunger for mathematics" and taught him calculus at the age of six.

Mr Ray's father, Subhashis, said his son's mathematical prowess quickly
outstripped his own considerable knowledge.

"He never discussed his project with me before it was finished and the
mathematics he used are far beyond my reach," he said.

Despite not speaking a word of German when he arrived, Mr Ray will this
week sit Germany's high school leaving exams, two years ahead of his peers.

Newton posed the problem, relating to the movement of projectiles through
the air, in the 17th century. Mathematicians had only been able to offer
partial solutions until now.

If that wasn't enough of an achievement, Mr Ray has also solved a second
problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed
in the 19th century.

Both problems Mr Ray resolved are from the field of dynamics and his
solutions are expected to contribute to greater precision in areas such as
ballistics.
-- 
Arthur
Cell: 647.710.1314

Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.
  -- Niels Bohr
_______________________________________________
dba-Tech mailing list
dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com
http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech
Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com



More information about the dba-Tech mailing list