Iraq-born teen cracks maths puzzle

Iraq-born teen cracks maths puzzle

news.yahoo.com

A 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden has cracked a maths puzzle that has stumped experts for more than 300 years, Swedish media reported on Thursday.

In just four months, Mohamed Altoumaimi has found a formula to explain and simplify the so-called Bernoulli numbers, a sequence of calculations named after the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, the Dagens Nyheter daily said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! And everyone said nothing good comes out of Iraq except terrorists! This is amazing! After no one could find the correct formula to a math problem for 300 years, a 16 year old Iraqi born kid does it in four months.

Now I was terrible at math in school so I could not imagine how difficult this math problem could possibly be. And with all the geniuses we have had in the past three hundred years, this kid must be off the charts when it comes to math.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

That's amazing, I must say though that I am more impressed by his age than his ethnicity. For a 16 year old to solve a 300 year old problem is quite impressive. Iraq was not a backwards nation it has always had a very high literacy rate and has had great quality educational facilities, now I do not know who much of the general population had access, but given the literacy rates I would say that it was available to the masses. Great job to him and what a beautiful mind, I hope that it will continue to be nutured and grow, imagine what he can accomplish.

Brilliant mind, this youth has. I always think of mathemeticians to be very creative, akin to the visionaries, for their formulas define many possibilities.

I'm also more impressed with his age, though I see the significance of relaying his nationality due to amount of hateful propaganda spread throughout the last decade of Arabs, especially Iraqis.

What a lot of people don't like to admit, is a lot the higher forms of math started in North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Sub-Continent.

There are still holy "math" books that Muslims hold for themselves and have not allowed Western scholars to yet see.

EDIT: Changed had to have

[edit on 30-5-2009 by breakingdradles]

reply to post by searching4truth


Yes, indeed, before the war, Iraq had a fine and renown scientific community reputable in various fields.
Sadly, since the war began, many have been assassinated in the lack of interets of the MSM but that is another story.

I got a kick out of this part...

"When I first showed it to my teachers, none of them thought the formula I had written down really worked," Altoumaimi told the Falu Kuriren newspaper.

Of course not. Their egos likely built an emotional wall blocking their potential understanding of the solution. Bloody morons. I'm glad he didn't stop there and pursued additional confirmation. How many important discoveries have gone unnoticed because the so-called "elders" have disregarded them completely?

Anyway, congrats to the kid for figuring it out. I was bothered that the article didn't try to explain the significance of the Bernoulli numbers, but when I looked up the wiki entry I was at a loss... and I'm pretty big into math myself.

People are always impressed when "youngins" accomplish feats of intelligence. I never understood that. At age 16, most peoples' brains are young, healthy, and almost fully developed from a physical standpoint. I suppose that's the result of declaring "adulthood" to arbitrarily begin at 18.

I'm only 26 now, not old by any means, and I still look at stuff I was doing at 16 and think "How the frack did I do that?"

If something's impressive here, its that he accomplished something that 300 years' worth of mathematical geniuses could not.

Originally posted by ArtMonte
I got a kick out of this part...

"When I first showed it to my teachers, none of them thought the formula I had written down really worked," Altoumaimi told the Falu Kuriren newspaper.

Of course not. Their egos likely built an emotional wall blocking their potential understanding of the solution. Bloody morons.

LOL

Unfortunately this is how the WHOLE scientific community works.

Why give up your fame because someone else found something better?

I remember now why I despised maths

en.wikipedia.org...

Good on the kid for figuring that out

I applaud this young man and his accomplishment. I hope that he goes on and accomplish many more mathematical feats. Perhaps we can get him working on string theory or the elusive unfinished equations of Albert Einstein.

First off good for the kid !!

Now , can anyone tell us all in plain english , what these numbers mean and what this equation is all about ?
Thanks

I'm curious why they're emphasising that he's from Iraq, it's almost like they're saying smart people don't come from Iraq.

Who cares where he's from, if he's smart good on him and I hope he does something useful with his genius.



[edit on 31/5/09 by Chadwickus]

Originally posted by Azador
I remember now why I despised maths

en.wikipedia.org...

Good on the kid for figuring that out

WOW!

Check please!

lol

reply to post by Mudman21


HELL He's probably the guy who wrote the Thing

snf

Originally posted by ArtMonte
I got a kick out of this part...

"When I first showed it to my teachers, none of them thought the formula I had written down really worked," Altoumaimi told the Falu Kuriren newspaper.

Of course not. Their egos likely built an emotional wall blocking their potential understanding of the solution. Bloody morons. I'm glad he didn't stop there and pursued additional confirmation. How many important discoveries have gone unnoticed because the so-called "elders" have disregarded them completely?

Anyway, congrats to the kid for figuring it out. I was bothered that the article didn't try to explain the significance of the Bernoulli numbers, but when I looked up the wiki entry I was at a loss... and I'm pretty big into math myself.

I'm sure the whole mathmatic world thought this, not just his teachers.

How do you think someone who has dedicated their lives to this field feels when they heard a 16 year old kid did something none of the great minds in 3 centuries had been able to do?

After all it is unlikely someone of any age would be able to accomplish this feat.

No doubt this is an excellent feat, no matter what country you are born in

And I guess people from Iraq are supposedly lower intellect ?

_________

Not that it really matters, but if you look into it, he was not actually the first person to do it, but that really doesnt matter to me, bc if you look at that math it makes you want to throw up all over yourself

Originally posted by Azador
I remember now why I despised maths

en.wikipedia.org...

Good on the kid for figuring that out

The last section in the discussion page there might help tone down the hype a bit. The formula (whatever it might be) was said by Jmk to have been known since 1883.

There's a link at Uppsala University:
No new mathematical solution by Swedish Teen

Conspiracy angle:
Discredit a 16 year old in the name of pride? I guess more info is required.

What amazes me is how slowly news travels these days... I heard about this days ago.

And to think we are supposed to live in the "information age".

Having said all of that, I am pleased that a youngster has cracked such a "complicated" puzzle.

Most things, in reality are simple, it's mankind that makes them complicated.

Well duh, Our math probably wouldn't even be near where it is today without the Arab peoples. They are the ones that preserved these types of things.