Maths genius

[Bee]

A friend has an 8-year-old son who is autistic. He's bonkers about space and NASA have even designed a cap badge for him. Today, he made us all gasp.

He'd won a certificate from school for solving a maths problem. The problem? Come up with a sum where the answer is 56.

The obvious solution is 7 x 8. Not for Eddie though - he said (2 to the power of 8)-200.

We're all just a little bit blown away. You can follow him on Twitter: @SpaceBoyEddie

 

[Jon]

I am always fascinated in hearing about these child prodigies. Some of them have the most amazing abilities. I wonder what the future holds for him.

 

[Bee]

Well, he's totally nuts about space and physics, and he also loves coding. He wants to be an astronaut - but not in the way many little boys want to be - he's serious about it and is already making a network of contacts such as Tim Peake and Neil Degrasse Tyson.

 

[Jon]

I was a coder. Now if only I was a genius... Networking at age 8 is pretty impressive!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Millions of children in the third world die needlessly before the age of 5... I always wonder what percentage of those children are actual geniuses? What a considerable waste, besides being a crime in anybody's estimations.

Look at it another way if the third world was demonstrated to be a resource, then would people look after it better?

 

[Bee]

Oh, I so agree with you. How much human potential is wasted because of accident of birth location?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I feel like I've hijack this thread! Should I start a new one?

 

[Jon]

That is up to you Uncle. I am free and easy about wherever the thread goes, others may not be.

 

[Bee]

I don't mind meandering threads. That's the beauty of forums such as this - an idea sparks an idea, sparks an idea, etc.

 

[Jon]

A cascade of ideas. At the same time, anyone who wants the topic to be back on topic can do so at any time. We all hold our own rudder.

 

[Bee]

Steady. Not all of us have rudders

Oh... you meant metaphorically?

 

[Jon]

I don't know what I meant. It seemed to make sense at the time.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The rudder isn't the problem. It's publicly grabbing the tiller that would get folks all wound up. But I digress...

Back to Uncle G's point:

There is a movie out that touches on that topic. It is called The Man Who Knew Infinity, about an Indian math genius who sadly died of tuberculosis while still quite young. At the time portrayed in the movie (early 20th century), in India that disease was quite prevalent. I don't recall the details of the movie and it WAS a bit dramatized, but it definitely explores the idea of how geography colors our viewpoint. The young man (family name was Ramanujan) who was the center of the story was treated disdainfully by many professors of math until he showed them that he was "for real."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Knew_Infinity_(film)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787524/

 

[Jon]

I loved that movie. Quite amazing. Just goes to show how far a genius can go without resources.