In a remarkable incident, two high school students have successfully cracked a math puzzle that had remained unsolvable for over 2,000 years.
This amazing breakthrough has garnered significant attention both online and within the mathematics community.
High school students solve a 2,000-year-old math puzzle believed to be unsolvable
Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson, students at St Mary's Academy in New Orleans, have managed to prove the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, leaving academics surprised.
The Pythagorean theorem, which dates back 2,000 years, states that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.
This mathematical principle has long perplexed scholars and researchers. However, Johnson and Jackson were able to present a new proof for this theorem during a meeting of the American Mathematical Society's southeastern chapter.
What's truly amazing about their discovery is that it goes against what people normally think.
They showed that using trigonometry doesn't always have to be circular, as many believed.
Instead, they used something called the Law of Sines, which is an important concept in trigonometry. Amazingly, their proof doesn't rely on the Pythagorean trigonometric identity.
"In our lecture we present a new proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem which is based on a fundamental result in trigonometry—the Law of Sines—and we show that the proof is independent of the Pythagorean trig identity sin^2x + cos^2x = 1," they presented.
During their presentation, Johnson and Jackson spoke about their findings and the process of arriving at their new proof.
Their work was met with admiration and respect from seasoned mathematicians and researchers attending the event.
The fact that these two high school students were the only ones in attendance among scholars from prestigious universities such as Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana State, Ohio State, and Oklahoma adds to the significance of their achievement.
In recent days, Johnson and Jackson have been sharing their story with local media outlets.
In an interview with WWL, Johnson expressed her excitement and described the experience of presenting her work alongside Jackson as wonderful.
She emphasized the satisfaction of defying expectations and accomplishing something that many perceive as beyond the reach of young people.
The remarkable achievement of these two high school students has been noticed widely.
A prominent US math research organization has encouraged them to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal, recognizing its exceptional quality.
