It's common for some high school students to need the help of a math teacher. For others, numbers come naturally. And then there's Tamar Barabi. The Israeli teenager just invented a new geometric theorem(几何定理).
Like most discoveries, the moment happened by accident. Tamar handed in her math homework and the teacher said the theory she used to solve the problem didn't actually exist. "She said if I could prove it, it could be my theory. So that's what happened,"Barabi said. With help from her dad, who is also a math teacher, they sent the theorem to experts around the world.
Known as the Three Radii Theorem, or" Tamar's Theory" for short, it goes as follows:" If three or more equal lines leave a single point and reach the boundary(边界)of a circle, the point is the center of the circle and the lines are its radii(半径). "To create the actual theorem, Barabi had to write up three proofs, a series of conclusions and some sample exercises.
"Tamar deserves praise for finding a new twist of stating that a circle has only one center and only one radius," Professor Ron Livne said. "It's cool to see how Tamar's theorem can give elegant proofs for other important theorems."
When she's not coming up with new math theorems, Barabi spends most of her time after school taking ballet lessons. She also plays the guitar and the piano. When asked if she liked Justin Bieber, Barabi, who comes from the same town as supermodel Bar Refaeli, she just laughed. "I want to be an actor and a dancer," she said. For now, the teenager is enjoying the fame this new theory has afforded her.
So did her math teacher give her an A+ for her discovery?" No,"Barabi explained, "learn in a school where we don't get grades."