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New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

keith-mcnulty.medium.com

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Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#82

> By all accounts, these two teenage math students are the exact opposite of the majority of the math establishment. They are female, they are African-American, and they come from an area which is not particularly renowned for producing high academic achievers. This is just an awesome turn of events and one which should inspire anyone — no matter what their ethnic, gender or socio-demographic background — that excell…

Perhaps the website for the school is incomplete and only listing registration fees and not tuition but the only figure I see is $750, which is not nothing for plenty of families but is hardly what I would call expensive when it comes to private education. Am I missing something? Very well could be!

Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#83
post #59

> By all accounts, these two teenage math students are the exact opposite of the majority of the math establishment. They are female, they are African-American, and they come from an area which is not particularly renowned for producing high academic achievers. This is just an awesome turn of events and one which should inspire anyone — no matter what their ethnic, gender or socio-demographic background — that excell…

How would it be remiss to omit these factors, several of which seen irrelevant. Are you suggesting that their proof be discounted because it might be divinely inspired?

> Are you suggesting that their proof be discounted because it might be divinely inspired?

I read it in a totally different way, that the merit of such institutions should be acknowledged. More so because of the culture because of any divine inspiration.

Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#86

I don't get how this is "new" or "novel" ? it seems to me the law of cosine (or al kashi's theorem) we study this in high school in France ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_cosines

The concept isn't new or novel, the proof is (or might be).

Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#87
> doing my best to explain how Johnson and Jackson proved it using simple trigonometry. Although their proof hasn’t been published

They didn't publish it, but this author is just going to take the liberty to publish their work himself? If I were one of these teenagers, this would make me angry.

Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#88

> By all accounts, these two teenage math students are the exact opposite of the majority of the math establishment. They are female, they are African-American, and they come from an area which is not particularly renowned for producing high academic achievers. This is just an awesome turn of events and one which should inspire anyone — no matter what their ethnic, gender or socio-demographic background — that excell…

Perhaps the website for the school is incomplete and only listing registration fees and not tuition but the only figure I see is $750, which is not nothing for plenty of families but is hardly what I would call expensive when it comes to private education. Am I missing something? Very well could be!

Parents that care are a huge predictor of academic success. Putting your child in a private school, even an affordable one, is more effort than just going with the default option and thus serves as signal for parents caring.

Re: New Orleans teenagers found a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

#89
I think you can sidestep trigonometry (and the Law of Sines) completely. You can decompose any triangle A, B, C using their construction to create smaller triangle a, b, c where A = 2abc/(b² - a²), C = c(b² + a²)/(b² - a²), and B = c. This can be shown with only similar triangles (it seems like they unnecessarily use sines in the article). It is then just algebra to show A² + B² = c²(b² + a²)²/(b² - a²)² = C².

edit: any right triangle A, B, C using their construction to create smaller right triangle a, b, c

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