350-Year-Old Isaac Newton Puzzle Solved?

Shourryya Ray, 16-Year-Old German Student, Dubbed 'Genius' For Cracking 350-Year-Old Isaac Newton Puzzle


So the linked article is typical of popular media reporting when it comes to something like this. That is long on hype and short of actual information. Details like the actual problem and its solution would have been nice, but no where to be found in this article or any of the links in the article. In fact a Google search on the name Shourryya Ray did not yield much more information. So how about any of the Mobile Read members from Germany, or even Europe? An amazing accomplishment or much ado about nothing?

[AnemicOak]

More info here...
http://datelinenews.org/shourryya-ra...ysicists/99554

[Billi]

Maybe his name is not written correctly. My search engine showed ten pages of results but not a single German link. And searching on "welt.de" as this paper was mentioned in the article didn't give a result either.

[Daithi]

The discussion on PhysicsForums concerning the kids solution is pretty interesting. The consensus seems to be that the media is jumping the gun a tad. They seem to think the kid was able solve the DE using a Taylor series, which doesn't count as a "closed-form solution". Although, still impressive for a 16-year-old.

As HallsofIvy said on the forums, "What really seems strange to me is that the solution to a problem proposed by Newton and unsolved by mathematicians and physicists for 300 years would win second prize in a local school competition. I want to see the paper that won the first prize!"

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

More info here...
http://datelinenews.org/shourryya-ra...ysicists/99554

Originally Posted by Daithi

The discussion on PhysicsForums concerning the kids solution is pretty interesting. The consensus seems to be that the media is jumping the gun a tad. They seem to think the kid was able solve the DE using a Taylor series, which doesn't count as a "closed-form solution". Although, still impressive for a 16-year-old.

As HallsofIvy said on the forums, "What really seems strange to me is that the solution to a problem proposed by Newton and unsolved by mathematicians and physicists for 300 years would win second prize in a local school competition. I want to see the paper that won the first prize!"

Thanks you both for the links to additional information. I would appear that if the solution Ray computed turns out to be correct it is only an alternate infinite series solution to join others that have been found in the past. Indeed it is not a closed-form solution to the problem. That I feel probably does not exist. A remarkable achievement for such a young man, but not justification for the headlines in the popular press. I took a stab at verifying the series solution, but soon gave up. My mathematics skills are not at the level of over thirty years ago when I was in graduate school.

I am also very curious as to what took first prize and why that has not appeared in the media.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by Billi

And searching on "welt.de" as this paper was mentioned in the article didn't give a result either.

http://www.welt.de/print/die_welt/ve...len-bitte.html

also check out the homepage of the event http://www.jugend-forscht.de

https://www.jugend-forscht.de/index....download/17463 (page 10)

https://www.jugend-forscht.de/index....tail/6038.4568

first prize: https://www.jugend-forscht.de/index....tail/6038.4569

relativistic raytracer that shows what objects would look like from point of view of an object moving at near lightspeed sounds interesting too, too bad none of those "interesting pictures and videos" are to be found anywhere

I'm no good at math but seems to me that a project that involves pictures and videos can be presented better than a math formula...

[lostmymarbles]

But the calibre would be much different.
Pity when something truly genius comes along, but doesn't get the recognition it deserves.
Second place.