Teen catches math error in golden ratio at Boston museum

Teen catches math error in golden ratio at Boston museum
In this June 23, 2015, file photo, John Handley High School sophomore Joseph Rosenfeld, poses for a photo at the school in Winchester, Va. Rosenfeld discovered a decades-old math error that had gone unnoticed at the Museum of Science in Boston during a visit. (Jeff Taylor/The Winchester Star via AP, File)

A 15-year-old high school student visiting Boston's Museum of Science has uncovered a math error in the golden ratio at a 34-year-old exhibit.

Virginia resident Joseph Rosenfeld was visiting the museum on a recent family trip when he saw something that appeared wrong with the equation.

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.

Parkes wrote that the mistake had been there for a "very long time" without being noticed.

Joseph tells Boston.com (bit.ly/1fiu3PH ) that catching the error was exciting. He hopes to return to the state someday to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

© 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: Teen catches math error in golden ratio at Boston museum (2015, July 7) retrieved 18 March 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2015-07-teen-math-error-golden-ratio.html
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