16-year-old boy solves a 350-year-old Math Problem

Shouryya Ray, a 16-year-old boy is the only person who solved the 350-year-old  mathematical problems posed by Sir Isaac Newton. He worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance while doing another project.

Shouryya Ray is an Indian-born teen and labeled by the German Media as "Genius" but for him he just wanted to be known as "curiosity and schoolboy naivety".

He was just 12 years old when they moved to Germany because of his father's job as research assistant at the Technical University of Freiburg. According to him, his father is the one who gave him the "hunger for mathematics" and taught him Calculus at the age of six.

Newton's problem is about the movement of projectiles through the air, in the 17th century. In which most of the mathematicians today have just a partial solution.

Ray also solved not only one problem but also the second problem posed by Sir Isaac on 19th century. It deals about the collision of a body with a wall.

The two problems was solved by Ray. The two problems are from the field of dynamics and because of this, it will help in having a greater precision in areas such as ballistics.


Source: The Sunday Times