Teen solves Newton’s 300-year-old riddle
Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 4:40 pm
An Indian-born teenager has won a research award for solving a mathematical problem first posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago that has baffled mathematicians ever since.
The solution devised by Shouryya Ray, 16, makes it possible to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance.
Shouryya, who lives in Dresden, eastern Germany, came up with the solutions to this and a second mathematical riddle while working on a school project.
He is being hailed as a genius in the German press, but attributes his achievement to “curiosity and schoolboy naivety.”
“When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself: well, there’s no harm in trying,” he said.
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Consider a projectile moving in gravity with quadratic air resistance.
Spoiler!
