NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has donated $1 million to an academy in New Orleans that just produced two groundbreaking young mathematicians.
The story begins last year when GNN reported on the success of two high school teens 2,000 years in the making.
Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson from St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans said they had solved the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry. Classical Greek brainiac Pythagoras created a theorem that goes like this.
The area of the square whose side is the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the areas of the squares on the other two sides. It is written as a2+b2=c2.
One of the interesting things about this bedrock mathematical equation is that for 2,000 years, no mathematician has been able to demonstrate the truth of it without simply using the equation itself as proof; what is called circular logic, and not accepted as true evidence of proof.
Johnson and Jackson reference Elisha Loomis’s The Pythagorean Proposition, a book investigating this concept, which “flatly states that ‘there are no trigonometric proofs because all the fundamental formulae of trigonometry are themselves based upon the truth of the Pythagorean Theorem,’” the girls wrote.
Following up on this 2,000-year-old conundrum, the two young women presented findings of the ‘Law of Sines,’ which they say proves fundamental truths in trigonometry without relying on the trigonometric equations themselves as evidence.
This accomplishment, which was featured on CBS’ 60 Minutes, piqued the inspiration of Charles Barkley, who announced that he would give the academy a $1 million grant to help the institution continue to hone the talents of students like Jackson and Johnson.
“[Barkley] has a love and passion for what the academy stands for and how it is shaping the lives and futures of young girls in New Orleans,” a representative of the academy said, according to Nola.
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“This transformative gift will assist students as they excel and achieve whatever dream they create within the walls of St. Mary’s Academy,” the academy’s president Pamela Rogers, said in a press release.
Barkley, who will be donating $100K every year for ten years, recently made GNN headlines for turning down broadcasting contracts totaling $100 million that would have required him to leave TNT Sports after it lost the rights to broadcast the NBA.
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Entering the last year of NBA coverage, Barkley stayed on to ensure that all the staff who produce his television work keep their jobs until the end of the 2024-2025 NBA season.
“I love my TNT Sports family,” Barkley said in a statement released by Turner. “My #1 priority has been and always will be our people and keeping everyone together for as long as possible.”
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Thanks to Mr. Barkley for keeping his word and for the two young women who solved the Pythagorean theorem. We need good mathematicians for our future. Many thanks to both Mr. Barkley and Calcea Johnson and Ne’Kiya Jackson!