Louisiana Students Shock the Science Community with Solutions to 2,000-Year-Old Math Problem

Two former high school students from Louisiana have made a mark on the STEM community after coming up with 10 solutions to a 2,000-year-old math problem.

In 2022, Ne'Kiya Jackson and Calcea Johnson presented a novel proof of the Pythagorean theorem that avoided circular reasoning. This had never been done before and was thought to be impossible given the problem's foundational role in trigonometry, as reported by Live Science.

Despite this, the proof itself had not been thoroughly reviewed. Now, the two have shocked the community once again, by presenting nine more proofs to the problem.

Jackson, who attends Xavier University of Louisiana, and Johnson, who attends Louisiana State University, have jointly published a paper detailing their original proof along with their additional solutions. The peer-reviewed paper was published Monday in the journal American Mathematical Monthly.

"To have a paper published at such a young age — it's really mind-blowing," Johnson told Live Science.

Jackson and Johnson's discovery challenges the longstanding mathematical conventions which surrounded the theorem.

"I didn't think it would go this far," Jackson told the outlet. "I was pretty surprised to be published."

Following their latest achievement, the two aim to inspire other young women and people of color in STEM fields.