Slashdot Mirror
Israeli 10th-Grader Discovers Elegant Geometry Theorem
An anonymous reader writes with a report that: Tamar Barbi, a 10th grade student living in Hod Hasharon, Israel, discovered that the theorem she was using to solve one of the problems on her geometry homework didn't actually exist. With the help of her teacher and mathematicians, she wrote up a proof for the theorem, which helps provide new and more elegant proofs for many other mathematical theorems. Posters at Hacker News have some skeptical words about the theorem's novelty, but also about the phrasing of the news report, which seems to omit some crucial words.
As the MIT discussion (linked in the slashdot summary) shows, it's actually in the Elements. But the theorem was not in the textbook used by the school and the student did stumble on it on her own. Good for her.
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Do you realize that the common core is nothing but a set of standards as far as what students should be able to achieve at various levels? It does not dictate how teachers are supposed to teach the standards. That is left completely up to the teachers. The problem is that private companies are taking advantage of the fact that there currently is a lack of teaching materials that address the common core. Then to compound the problem are teachers who are often not specialists in their own area. I have taught an entire class of future math teachers, and most of them chose that profession because 1) they will always be in demand and 2) because they like to work with kids -- neither of which necessarily result in strong math teachers. (In fact, most of them would probably never become great math teachers, to be perfectly honest.) Anyway, your beef with the common core lies with the companies trying to cash in on the teaching materials void.
It's sad how stupid reporters report wrong "news", the error gets repeated all over the Internet, and finally lands in Slashdot whose editor didn't know the original news report was wrong.
The 16-year-old girl did not invent a previously-unknown theorem. What she did is to re-invent a theorem which Euclid already listed and proved over two thousand years ago (http://aleph0.clarku.edu/~djoyce/elements/bookIII/propIII9.html). But Euclid listed hundreds of theorems, most have simple and basic proofs, and most of them are never specifically taught. In this case, the girl was not taught this theorem, but she thought that she could have used such a theorem in her homework, so she went about proving it (with help from her teacher, who was also not familiar with Euclid's mention of this theorem).
The girl's proof is different Euclid's, but still very simple and elementary, and is in no way a profound addition to Mathematics. But this girl is still admirable, in that she had the creativity and resourcefulness to imagine a "new" (to her) theorem, and to go around proving here - rather than sticking to the "cheat sheet" of theorems she was taught in class. This girl definitely deserves an A in her math class, but not worldwide mention on news classes.
Of course, it's not her fault, but rather that of the reporters who blew this story out of proportions, and reported this stuff as a new theorem, a breakthrough, or other irrelevant adjectives - without checking the validity of this "story" with any Mathematician worth his salt. This "story" should never have made headlines, and definitely not slashdot. But the girl still deserves praise, and of course an A :-)
Is this the same adoption as the states that can decide on the drinking age, but if it is below 21, they loose a lot of money on roads?
This does not mean that I am for or against states or the governement deciding what the law is. It is just that is seems like childish behaviour and pointing fingers I would expect from a 5 year old.
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