Teen Catches Math Error At Boston Museum

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How many people a year visit to the Boston Museum? This kid should get a prize or something. ;)

Joseph noticed minus signs in the equation where there should have been plus signs. He left a message at the desk and later received a letter from the museum’s exhibit content developer, Alana Parkes, informing him the equation would be corrected.
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Did everyone get a load of the NEERRRRRRRRRRRRRD? Kid is wicked smawt.
 
I always wonder how these stories actually make it into the news.
Parents seeking attention for their kid?
Kid seeking attention for himself?

Museum docent contacted the press? Doubtful as it seems to be a local DC area story, and I don't see a reporter traveling from MA to VA over a piddling story like this.
 
To clarify.. both were correct depending on your definition of the golden ratio. Short to long side, or long to short side.

It's as if you are arguing if the ratio is 2:1 or 1:2. Except that with the golden ratio the reciprocal looks very similar but with different sign making it appear as a simple error.

What the museum had:
(√5 - 1) / 2

What the golden ratio is defined as normally:
(√5 + 1) / 2

If you take
(√5 - 1) / 2

take the reciprocal
2 / (√5 + 1)

Then simplify it by multiply by (√5 + 1) / (√5 + 1)
[(√5 + 1) / (√5 + 1)] * [2 / (√5 + 1)]

you get
(√5 + 1) / 2.
 
Oops bad copy pasta.. fixed sign in reciprocal and step after

aL Mac said:
take the reciprocal
2 / (√5 - 1)

Then simplify it by multiply by (√5 + 1) / (√5 + 1)
[(√5 + 1) / (√5 + 1)] * [2 / (√5 - 1)]

you get
(√5 + 1) / 2.
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So really, the golden ratio is (sqrt(5) +/- 1)/2?

Never heard of the golden ratio before. Shows just how bad Central Florida's school system is. Thank goodness I got the heck out of there.
 
Ugh this kind of math and other shit is why I dropped out of high school and learned computers. My school didn't teach computers.
 
Doward said:
So really, the golden ratio is (sqrt(5) +/- 1)/2?

Never heard of the golden ratio before. Shows just how bad Central Florida's school system is. Thank goodness I got the heck out of there.
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No, that is just the value of the golden ratio, the golden ratio is when you have a ratio of sides such that (a+b)/a = a/b = 1.618...

You might recognize it from the box version of it
goldenratio.gif

Which if you spiral through the corners
image19.gif


From a mathematical standpoint I don't find it too impressive of a math type of thing, but hey for some people math jives a little differently.

The museum says it best though
https://twitter.com/museumofscience/status/618513397051691010/photo/1
"...the way the Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common -- but no less accurate -- way to present it. So basically this kid didn't really correct shit, I give him props for paying attention though and noticing that it's different from the way he knows, it shows he actually looked at the exhibit as opposed to just going "oh yay, math stuff, ooh look knobs I can twist and turn over there" that most kids have at museum exhibits.
 
Well then the kid should not be given any attention at all. All he is doing is regurgitating what he learned. He never knew the original equation got to the same answer. All he noticed was + and - signs and that it looked different from what he was told. If he knew how to do the math, then he could have worked on the equation there and come up with the same answer.
 
Kelby said:
Well then the kid should not be given any attention at all. All he is doing is regurgitating what he learned. He never knew the original equation got to the same answer. All he noticed was + and - signs and that it looked different from what he was told. If he knew how to do the math, then he could have worked on the equation there and come up with the same answer.
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+1

He's never going to MIT lol
 
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