Shouryya Ray is a 16-year-old boy from Calcutta who is now in high school in Dresden, Germany, and who has been interested in mathematics since the age of 6. He appears recently to have solved a problem related to the projection of objects, a puzzle that existed since Sir Isaac Newton published his Principia Mathematica in 1687. Ray’s solution allows the exact calculation of a trajectory under gravity and subject to air resistance, a mathematical question that, according to some reporters, physicists have been trying to resolve for a very long time without the use of a computer.
Some information channels regard this accomplishment as suspicious or nonexistent. Some physicists and mathematicians are asking for Ray’s calculations to be made public in order to gauge their scientific merit. Others, including math professor Jürgen Voigt of TU Dresden, suggest that “the problem never actually existed.” Voigt said in a message to The Huffington Post that the classical “theory is contained in textbooks, and is presented in second- or third-year courses at the university.” Be that as it may, Ray’s efforts deserve attention and congratulations.