300 year old math problem solved that will help ballistics

[DFBrews]

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05...-isaac-newton/

A German 16-year-old has become the first person to solve a mathematical problem posed by Sir Isaac Newton more than 300 years ago.
Shouryya Ray worked out how to calculate exactly the path of a projectile under gravity and subject to air resistance, The (London) Sunday Times reported.
The Indian-born teen said he solved the problem that had stumped mathematicians for centuries while working on a school project.
Ray won a research award for his efforts and has been labeled a genius by the German media, but he put it down to "curiosity and schoolboy naivety."
"When it was explained to us that the problems had no solutions, I thought to myself, 'well, there's no harm in trying,'" he said.
Ray's family moved to Germany when he was 12 after his engineer father got a job at a technical college. He said his father instilled in him a "hunger for mathematics" and taught him calculus at the age of six.
Ray's father, Subhashis, said his son's mathematical prowess quickly outstripped his own considerable knowledge.
"He never discussed his project with me before it was finished and the mathematics he used are far beyond my reach," he said.
Despite not speaking a word of German when he arrived, Ray will this week sit Germany's high school leaving exams, two years ahead of his peers.
Newton posed the problem, relating to the movement of projectiles through the air, in the 17th century. Mathematicians had only been able to offer partial solutions until now.
If that wasn't enough of an achievement, Ray has also solved a second problem, dealing with the collision of a body with a wall, that was posed in the 19th century.
Both problems Ray resolved are from the field of dynamics and his solutions are expected to contribute to greater precision in areas such as ballistics.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05...#ixzz26JfCcr1z

[Tinelement]

Sooooo......

If no one could ever solve it, who can confirm his answer is right????

. Seriously though?

[dtbighit]

Sooooo......

If no one could ever solve it, who can confirm his answer is right????

. Seriously though?

Ditto,I was thinking the same thing

[BushMasterBoy]

Sensational journalism.

What the kid did was create some ballistics tables. Ho hum


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1616085.html

[SA Friday]

I suspect he derived an equation from kinematic and force equations. I wish they would have showed the math. It would be neat to see. I've seen an article about civil war cannon ballistic "triangles" used by artillery officers and comparing them to current physics. The results were suprisingly close.

[Ashton]

Less than a month before he's dead and his data is in an "app"

[Storm]

I suspect he derived an equation from kinematic and force equations. I wish they would have showed the math. It would be neat to see. I've seen an article about civil war cannon ballistic "triangles" used by artillery officers and comparing them to current physics. The results were suprisingly close.

Here's the math.
Link (PDF)

[Singlestack]

Calling BS on this. No possible way this problem was unsolvable before this German kid came along. Frankly the physics involving ballistics is extremely well understood and accurately modeled/predicted , and has been for many decades if not hundreds of years.

Singlestack

[Rucker61]

Here's the math.
Link (PDF)

My first problem here is that the Germans use different symbology than we teach here, but it seems straightforward, from what I can discern. My undergrad was Mathematics, specializing in Algebraic systems, although it's been 25 years since I've used the stuff.

[Rucker61]

Calling BS on this. No possible way this problem was unsolvable before this German kid came along. Frankly the physics involving ballistics is extremely well understood and accurately modeled/predicted , and has been for many decades if not hundreds of years.

Singlestack

Did you read the linked article? In it, the authors state that the claim that the problem was unsolvable was in error, so you would be correct.