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.
They probably would have marked the answer on her homework as wrong because she didn't use the Common Core government approved method of solving the problem.
Don't try to learn about math from news media.
Even if the proof isn't novel, or if there's some glaring error, Israeli secondary-school students now have a champion for a while, who found something interesting. That student in particular has a vested interest in a particular area of her field, and hopefully that will grow into a later expertise, and ultimately significant contributions to human knowledge.
Faults and all, this is how mankind progresses... Stumbling forward one mistake at a time.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
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.
Okay, the article says:
That's a definition, not a theorem. Even if you're generous enough to fix the wording, it's been proven centuries ago. If a point is taken within a circle, and more than two equal straight lines fall from the point on the circle, then the point taken is the center of the circle.
Not to mention that the article doesn't actually give the proof, and is simply a "yay, new invention by youngster" fluff.
And if you need to include that in the blurb, it's perhaps a good reason the article itself is garbage, especially when the topmost comment shows exactly why it's wrong.
According to the new "Three Radii Theorem," if three or more lines extend from a single point to the edge of a circle, then the point is the center of the circle and the straight lines are the radii.
I think what they meant to say was three lines of equal length in which case this just defines three points on a circle which is of course enough to uniquely define it. It also only works in two dimensions otherwise the point does not have to be the centre. This is the sort of geometric proof problem we used to get at secondary school. Have standards really fallen so incredibly far that this is noteworthy now let alone publishable? If so me and my old schoolmates can probably rustle up quite a few more "theorems" for publication in the journal of bleeding obvious mathematics.
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 :-)
And how do you know they are not Muslim?
The summery said Israeli not Palestinian. The Jews wouldn't allow Muslims into their country.
According to the CIA world factbook, 17.5% of Israelis are Muslim.
Look she is a scientist too! She is female and non white, this is so great, much greater than the theorem. We have so few theorems we can name after women, its really great we now can prove the patriarchists that cunts are smarter than dicks!
Yeah but she doesn't want to do maths she wants to be an actress, just like the rest of them....../sigh
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