Jugend Forscht

Sixteen-year-old Shouryya Ray, a student from Dresden who was born in Calcutta, submitted a paper proposing analytical solutions to two problems in particle dynamics.

A research paper that claims to fill in a gap in Isaac Newton's formulas for the physics of falling objects has drawn worldwide attention to a 16-year-old student in Germany, but physicists are reserving judgment until they've seen the proof.

The focus of the buzz is Shouryya Ray, an Indian-born student who won second prize this month in the math and informatics category for Germany's Jugend Forscht student science competition. Ray tackled a couple of longstanding puzzlers for physics students: How do you account for air resistance in calculating the trajectory of ball thrown out at an angle? And precisely how does a ball thrown against the wall rebound?

The first question relates to Newton's law of universal gravitation: In his Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, Newton laid out how a gravitational field would affect a thrown object — but he didn't account for the effect of air resistance. Through the centuries, physicists have used numerical approximations to take drag into account, and when computers come into play, those approximations can be incredibly precise. But Ray said he wanted to come up with a set of formulas that could calculate the effect directly, even though his instructors said that had never been done.

"I asked myself: Why can't it work?" he told the German newspaper Die Welt.

That's what Ray tried to do in his prize-winning paper, titled "Analytical Solution of Two Fundamental Unsolved Problems of Particle Dynamics" ("Analytische Lösung von zwei ungelösten fundamentalen Partikeldynamikproblemen"). In addition to the falling-ball problem, Ray took on a puzzler of more recent vintage, having to do with the description of a particle's collision with a wall, as described by 19th-century theory. But it was the "kid-trumps-Newton" angle that really stirred up a buzz.

Die Welt's report came early in the game: The Daily Mail and The Sunday Times of London picked up the story, adding to the sensation. The idea that a teenager could figure out something that Newton didn't is irresistible — particularly when the teen is an immigrant from Calcutta who says he's no genius. But the story just sparked more questions among inquiring minds in such online hangouts as Physics Forum, Slashdot and Reddit: What exactly did Ray do? And were these problems really such mysteries to solve?

That's a challenge, because Ray's paper was a school project submitted for a contest, and thus not subject to the publication process and peer review that professional work typically goes through. For that reason, the experts are reluctant to weigh in.

"This story seems rather suspicious," Richard Fitzpatrick, a physicist at the University of Texas in Austin, told me in an email. "None of the news reports give any details of the calculation. None of the people who hailed Shouryya Ray as a genius are scientists, and none of them give the impression that they have seen the calculation in question. It is impossible to gauge the scientific merit of the calculation until it is made public."

Syracuse University physicist Simon Catterall said in an email that calculating the trajectories of falling objects hadn't been seen as a particularly grand puzzle of physics. "The background given in the article seems genuine enough, so it may indeed be true, but I haven't heard anything about a new solution to a Newtonian problem on the grapevine," he told me.

Based on what's come out about the work so far, the consensus seems to be that Ray has done amazing work for his age — and if he had to choose between his passion for science and his passion for soccer, he'd be well-advised to pick math and physics. His paper putting forth an "analytical solution to two fundamental unsolved problems" may not be the breakthrough that some of the reports have made it out to be, but that doesn't take anything away from the teenager's achievement.

"What Ray has worked out, almost certainly independently, would definitely put him in the 99th percentile amongst his peers and maybe even more," one Redditor observed.

By the way, the first-place winner in the math and informatics category, Julius Kunze, wrote a paper on relativistic ray tracing. But that's a different story... 

Update for 5 p.m. ET: Other experts on Newtonian physics have replied to my follow-up queries via email:

Oxford University physicist James Binney: "Doesn't sound too interesting to me. The resistance of air to the ball won't be susceptible to simple analytic formulae — if the ball is of ordinary size, [greater than a centimeter] radius — the flow around it will be in the high Reynolds-number regime and involve a thin boundary layer. Such flows were extensively studied from the last part of the 19th century, so it's true that they lie beyond Newton's knowledge. A good approximation will be to take the drag force as pi r^2 rho v^2, where r is the radius of the ball, v its speed and rho the density of air. I'm unaware of a puzzle regarding bouncing balls. In detail the bounce will depend on the physical properties of the ball — as any squash player knows. Usually one adopts a coefficient of restitution. To be impressed we need to know details."

University of Bristol physicist Michael Berry: "Without seeing the details of what Ray has claimed, it's impossible to comment intelligently. It depends crucially on how he has modeled the air resistance. But a falling body with air resistance (however modeled) is hardly a 'fundamental unsolved problem,' as he seems to think. There's a powerful aroma of hype."  

More about physics:

• Laws of physics get bent to produce ... coneheads!
• Subatomic discovery pushes the limits of physics
• The fish that nearly sank Newton's career
• Cosmic Log archive on physics

Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding Cosmic Log's Google+ page to your circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

If you're mathematically minded enough, every day can be a special day — it's just that today's date, 11-02-2011, makes it more obvious for palindrome fans. Like Aziz Inan, for instance.

Inan, an engineering professor at the University of Portland, has made a study of dates that run the same numbers forward and backward. Several studies, in fact. Such combinations are considered numerical palindromes, much like the alphabetical palindromes that delight puzzle fans. (One of the most famous examples is the Garden of Eden's first introduction: "Madam, I'm Adam.")

This year has several date-based palindromes, depending on how you structure them: 1-10-2011, 1-11-11, 11-1-11 ... and if you go by the DD/MM/YYYY notation, Feb. 11 already marked 11-02-2011. Inan told the Los Angeles Times that today (or Feb. 11, if your calendar swings differently) is extra special because 11,022,011 equals another palindrome, 1001 X 11 X 1001.

Aziz Inan / Univ. of Portland

Aziz Inan, an engineering professor at the University of Portland, demonstrates the palindromosity of 11-02-2011 with a little help from a mirror image (and Cookie Monster).

"This is so much fun," Inan told the Times. "Engineering can get pretty boring because you talk about equations, but when I say, 'Do you know today is a special date?' it gets a lot of attention. It helps me change the subject for a few minutes and bring the students back from their dream or their hibernating."

Next year's Palindrome Days are Feb. 10 (2-10-2012), Feb. 21 (21-02-2012 in day/month/year) and Oct. 2 (2-10-2012 in day/month/year). Then there's 02-02-2020 — which is particularly notable not only because it's the next eight-digit palindrome date but also because it works whether you go with MM/DD/YYYY notation or DD/MM/YYYY.

But you don't have to wait all that long for the mother of all monodigital dates, which comes next week on Veterans Day. What will you be doing at 11:11 on 11-11-11? Going to the movies?

Correction for 3:35 p.m. ET: I originally wrote that Aziz's last name was "Anin," but the University of Portland pointed out that it's actually "Inan." Which is disappointing, because I was hoping he'd be the perfect palindromic match for Nina Ziza. The good news is that there's a Nani Ziza out there as well. I've also fixed another glitch: I originally referred to 11-02-2010 as Feb. 2 in day/month/year notation instead of the proper Feb. 11. Sorry about both those errors.

More calendrical fun:

• Pies fly on Pi Day
• The science of leap time
• Scientific shifts go beyond the zodiac
• The Maya and 2012: It's only a calendar

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Museum of Mathematics

An artist's conception shows the Museum of Mathematics, which is slated to open in Manhattan in 2012.

The man behind an innovative interactive museum devoted exclusively to mathematics promises that it will be a "place where it's safe to be a geek" — but also something more: a place where non-geeks can experience the true joy of math.

"There's this whole force of fun and beauty that most people don't get a chance to experience," said Glen Whitney, a 42-year-old mathematician who left his job at a hedge fund three years ago to start up the Museum of Mathematics.

Whitney's dream is taking shape even now in a 19,000-square-foot space at 11 E. 26th St. in Manhattan: He and the rest of the MoMath team have already raised $22 million toward their capital goal of $30 million, and the museum is on track to open in late 2012. But they're not waiting until then to spread the good word: The museum organizers have been sending a traveling exhibit called the "Math Midway" around the country for the past couple of years. (The exhibit was featured at this month's World Science Festival in New York and opens at the Discovery Center for Science and Technology in Southern California on Saturday.)

They're also open-sourcing the exhibit plans so that any museum around the world can put up their own version of a MoMath display. "The mission of the museum is to create the greatest amount of exciting, hands-on, informal mathematical opportunities that are out there in the world," Whitney told me.

The Math Midway is serving as a sort of beta test for the opportunities that will be offered when the actual museum opens. One of the biggest crowd-pleasers so far is a square-wheeled tricycle that's built to ride smoothly on a scalloped track. "There's a mathematical principle that says there's a road for every wheel," Whitney explained. The trike illustrates how that principle, which involves geometric shapes known as catenary curves, can work in the real world.

"We already know that people will line up for this," Whitney said. "It's become a bit of an icon for the Math Museum."

Another exhibit features puzzle pieces that are designed to fit together on cylinders, spheres and a shape that's curved like the mouth of a trumpet. "It basically lets you see how the curvature of the space you're in affects the kinds of patterns you can make," Whitney said. On a flat surface, you can fit six equilateral triangles around a single point ... but on the horn-shaped surface, you can fit seven.

"In every exhibit, we try to pack a surprise punch," Whitney said.

Although the museum is designed to appeal to all ages, the team is paying special attention to how well the exhibits go over with students in the fourth through the eighth grade.

"That's our sweet spot, for a very simple reason," Whitney said. "If you look at the trajectory of students going through the curriculum, things seem more or less fine up to the fourth grade. That period from the fourth to the eight grade is where we see a decline in the engagement of the students. Why are we opening a math museum in the first place? It's because we see cultural issues in this country."

International studies have shown that 15-year-old students in the U.S. perform well below the global average when it comes to math — specifically, 25th place out of 34 countries in 2009, when the Program for International Student Assessment's most recent test was conducted. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the results were "an absolute wakeup call for America."

Whitney has been awake and aware of this problem for a long time. He believes the standard sequence of math classes is way too limiting, and fails to engage students as much as they could be engaged. "Mathematics is actually much broader and richer than the list of topics that one reaches through the normal curriculum," he said.

He hopes the Museum of Mathematics can play an integral role in turning the tide. Will the exhibits make math geeks out of non-geeks? Whitney doesn't obsess too much over those labels.

"We just want to create a place where it's OK to really love math and be enthusiastic and be engaged with it," he told me. "If you want to call that being a geek, then that's a geek. What we don't want is for students to end up three or four years later disavowing any interest in those beautiful surprises because they see signals telling them, 'Oh, that's not something we should be talking about.'"

Is it going to be a hard sell to get kids to go to a math museum? Or is this just what the doctor ordered? (Yes, Whitney has his Ph.D. in mathematical logic from UCLA.) Feel free to weigh in with your comments below. 

Extra credit: While you're waiting for the museum to open, here are some recently published books that put an unorthodox spin on math:

• "The Mathematics of Life": Ian Stewart explains how mathematicians and biologists are working together on some of the most difficult problems the human race has ever tackled — including the unraveling of the genome, the structure of viruses, the spread of disease, the interaction of environmental factors and the origin of life itself.
• "One, Two, Three: Absolutely Elementary Mathematics": David Berlinski goes back to basics and explains the foundation of arithmetic, right down to the origins of the plus and minus signs. But don't get the idea that Berlinski is dumbing down the subject: This book touches upon the contributions by David Hilbert, Giuseppe Peano, Bertrand Russell and other brainy people through the ages.
• "Loving + Hating Mathematics: Challenging the Myths of Mathematical Life": Reuben Hersh and Vera John-Steiner delve into the lifestyles of the not-necessarily-rich but famous mathematicians, in an effort to explain "why the most rational of human endeavors is at the same time one of the most emotional."

Looking for geeky places to go? Check out this report from the author of "The Geek Atlas," this roundup of top tech destinations and this list of shrines to innovation. 

You can connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. Also, give a look to "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.