Teenager's parabola equation published in academic journal (1 Viewer)

Trebla

Administrator
Administrator
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
8,118
Gender
Male
HSC
2006

I haven't seen the paper (if anyone can access it free pls post lol), but apparently it's a proof that a parabola is the only function that has one focal point - something that is taken for granted in high school.

Good example of mathematical curiosity...:)
 

Drdusk

Moderator
Moderator
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
2,025
Location
a VM
Gender
Male
HSC
2018
Uni Grad
2023
I'm no mathematician but it took him 2 weeks to do it. Unless he's Ramanujan or something who can dream up formulas, how haven't Mathematicians already proved it? Like if people can prove stuff like Fermats last theorem and dedicate 10 years of their life to it, how come no one dedicated 2 weeks to this? I'm actually curious, not to sound degrading of his achievement, he's done a fine job, but shouldn't well known mathematicians already have proven something like this...
 

blyatman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
539
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
It's likely because nobody has asked that question before, so there was no incentive to prove it lol.
 

Daniel.22

New Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2019
Messages
6
Gender
Male
HSC
2022
Yeah, it is nothing special. And "academic journal" is a stretch for a mathematics education journal lol.
 

Attachments

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top