World In Progress

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WIP (World In Progress) intends to show all the positive progress going on in the world. It includes progress in technology, medicin, climate etc and not personal uplifting news.

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Two High Schoolers Found an 'Impossible' Proof for a 2,000-Year-Old Math Rule—Then, They Discovered Nine More | Smithsonian Magazine (www.smithsonianmag.com)

submitted 5 days ago by TehBamski@lemmy.world to c/worldinprogress@lemmy.world

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[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago (2 children)

In the article they state:

Using trigonometry, they had to create a new proof of the Pythagorean theorem, the 2,000-year-old rule that explains the relationship between the lengths of sides on a right triangle. No one told the teenagers that mathematicians had long considered this task “impossible.”

and THEN casually mention:

Two people had previously proved the theorem using trigonometry: Jason Zimba in 2009 and Nuno Luzia in 2015.

WTF?

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well, hate to do this, but all the phrasing is in the past tense.

Considered, long thought, etc.

But, they created a NEW proof. And considering it took 2 thousand years for 2 others to do it...

So there is that.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 5 days ago

I wonder if it's mainly because no one really tried, because it was already proven using two other forms of math that wasn't trigonometry. Also, I don't know how long the version of trigonometry they were using (sines) has been around. Before that it couldn't have been proven, because generally trigonometry uses the pythagoreum theorem as its fundamental base, per the article.

[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 days ago

I was just wondering the same. Plus, what kind of high school if high school offers prize money on a bonus assignment that's THOUGHT TO BE IMPOSSIBLE