Two standout students, Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson from St. Mary’s Academy, proved that there is a new way to solve Pythagorean Theorem other than the familiar 2,000 years old formula.
Johnson and Jackson presented their latest findings to fellow mathematicians during the American Mathematical Society’s Annual Southeastern Conference in Atlanta.
Their presentation showcased a new way to prove the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry without circular logic. This method is something mathematicians have been trying to do for nearly 2,000 years.
“In our lecture, we present a new proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem, which is based on a fundamental result in trigonometry — the Law of Sines — and we show that the proof is independent of the Pythagorean trig identity \sin^2x + \cos^2x = 1,” they wrote, The Black Wall Street reported.
“It’s really an unparalleled feeling, honestly, because there’s just nothing like being able to do something that people don’t think young people can do,” Johnson said. “A lot of times you see this stuff, you don’t see kids like us doing it.”
The two broke down trigonometry based on the original Pythagoras’ Theorem formula: A^2 + B^2 = C^2. The old formula states that the sum of the squares of the two shorter sides of a right triangle equals the sum of the square of the hypotenuse.
The young ladies thank their teachers for their latest success as they continuously challenged them to do the impossible.