NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— Two students from St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans East have made a mathematics discovery, that mathematicians have been trying to prove for 2,000 years.
School officials say 17-year-olds Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson, attended the American Mathematical Society’s Annual Southeastern Conference where they found a way to prove the Pythagorean Theorem theory using trigonometry and without using circular logic.
Used to calculate the side lengths of a right triangle, the theory was previously thought impossible to prove. The standard Pythagorean Theorem is used on an everyday basis in professions like:
- architecture
- building construction
- navigation
- space flight
- computer science
- programming building cars
Johnson and Jackson first became interested in Pythagoras’ Theormen when they entered a math contest created to spark students’ further interests in math. The study led them to prove the theory’s original proof was inaccurate.
The students made a groundbreaking lecture Saturday (March 18) in Atlanta, Georgia to mark their historic find.
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