Think you're smart? 12-year old astrophysics prodigy....

[kwame k]

In some ways, Jacob Barnett is just like any other 12-year-old kid. He plays Guitar Hero, shoots hoops with his friends, and has a platonic girlfriend.

But in other ways, he's a little different. Jake, who has an IQ of 170, began solving 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzles at the age of 3, not long after he'd been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism. A few years later, he taught himself calculus, algebra, and geometry in two weeks. By 8, he had left high school, and is currently taking college-level advanced astrophysics classes—while tutoring his older classmates. And he's being recruited for a paid researcher job by Indiana University.

Now, he's at work on a theory that challenges the Big Bang—the prevailing explanation among scientists for how the universe came about. It's not clear how developed it is, but experts say he's asking the right questions.

"The theory that he's working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics," Scott Tremaine of Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Studies—where Einstein (pictured) himself worked—wrote in an email to Jake's family. "Anyone who solves these will be in line for a Nobel Prize."

It's not clear where Jake got his gifts from. "Whenever I try talking about math with anyone in my family," he told the Indianapolis Star, "they just stare blankly."

But his parents encouraged his interests from the start. Once, they took him to the planetarium at Butler University. "We were in the crowd, just sitting, listening to this guy ask the crowd if anyone knew why the moons going around Mars were potato-shaped and not round," Jake's mother, Kristine Barnett, told the Star. "Jacob raised his hand and said, 'Excuse me, but what are the sizes of the moons around Mars?' "

After the lecturer answered, said Kristine, "Jacob looked at him and said the gravity of the planet ... is so large that (the moon's) gravity would not be able to pull it into a round shape."
"That entire building ... everyone was just looking at him, like, 'Who is this 3-year-old?'"

Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/for-12-year-old-astrophysics-prodigy-the-skys-the-limit)

[kwame k]

Wow, I'm just happy if I can find my car keys:headlights:

[Dan]

Wow, I'm just happy if I can find my car keys:headlights:

And The G-Spot.:D

[kwame k]

:lmao:

[Seshmeister]

I've come to the conclusion that to be really good at mathematics you have to have something wrong with your personality.

[Anonymous]

I've come to the conclusion that to be really good at mathematics you have to have something wrong with your personality.

He's an autistic with an IQ of 170.

He's bound to excel at his areas of interest.

Just think - the combined unnatural & obsessive concentration of an autistic with the IQ of a genius. I don't envy that kid, not one bit.

Cheers! :bottle:

[kwame k]

I've come to the conclusion that to be really good at mathematics you have to have something wrong with your personality.


So Ace is a mathematical genius:headlights:

[Anonymous]

Wow, I'm just happy if I can find my car keys:headlights:

Well...

No. It's just too easy. I can't. I shan't.

What is it that you play again?

I feel so dirty.

Cheers! :bottle:

[Anonymous]

So Ace is a mathematical genius:headlights:

You mustn't mention Those That Don't Matter.

Cheers! :bottle:

[binnie]

I've come to the conclusion that to be really good at mathematics you have to have something wrong with your personality.

With that kind of logic you must be the kind of person for whom 2 + 2 = 5.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

didn't russel crowe have the same problem one time?

[Seshmeister]

With that kind of logic you must be the kind of person for whom 2 + 2 = 5.

I'm talking really good. Like professor and beyond into those people that live in mathematics camps and go on to win Nobel prizes.

I know a mathematics professor pretty well and lived next door to a lecturer for a while as well as doing it as an undergraduate myself for a bit.

All a bit anecdotal but there seems to me to be a connection between the really good ones and having what these days is called a degree of high functioning Aspergers or Autism. Or you get these people that can do amazing things like repeat PI to thousands of decimal places but have synesthesia.

I didn't mean to belittle anyone like that, in fact I find it all amazing but when I've met these kinds of people they usually will display some pretty odd character traits socially. Maybe it just goes with being driven, there are some odd doctors and surgeons out there too but the mathematicians seem to be a special case.

Are you one? :D

[Seshmeister]

didn't russel crowe have the same problem one time?

I think that was a character in a movie but it illustrates my point.

Nash was nuts but also won the Nobel prize, I think for game theory stuff which I know very little about.

[chefcraig]

I've come to the conclusion that to be really good at mathematics you have to have something wrong with your personality.

Or, if you merely have something wrong with your personality, have a relative who is good with numbers.

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab302/MexicanStandoff_2009/rain-man-casino.jpg

[SunisinuS]

:) 23*3. Well not in THAT relative sense.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

i hope this kid is readin' yahoo's home page...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/fbi-asks-public-for-help-breaking-encrypted-notes-tied-to-1999-murder

[Dr. Love]

All a bit anecdotal but there seems to me to be a connection between the really good ones and having what these days is called a degree of high functioning Aspergers or Autism. Or you get these people that can do amazing things like repeat PI to thousands of decimal places but have synesthesia.

What's wrong with having synaesthesia? :|

[SunisinuS]

i hope this kid is readin' yahoo's home page...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110329/ts_yblog_thelookout/fbi-asks-public-for-help-breaking-encrypted-notes-tied-to-1999-murder


Code is math but not always physics. But I do like the idea.

"431 users online. 35 members and 396 guests
Most users ever online was 2,225,..."

Give me the math why?

[binnie]

I'm talking really good. Like professor and beyond into those people that live in mathematics camps and go on to win Nobel prizes.

I know a mathematics professor pretty well and lived next door to a lecturer for a while as well as doing it as an undergraduate myself for a bit.

All a bit anecdotal but there seems to me to be a connection between the really good ones and having what these days is called a degree of high functioning Aspergers or Autism. Or you get these people that can do amazing things like repeat PI to thousands of decimal places but have synesthesia.

I didn't mean to belittle anyone like that, in fact I find it all amazing but when I've met these kinds of people they usually will display some pretty odd character traits socially. Maybe it just goes with being driven, there are some odd doctors and surgeons out there too but the mathematicians seem to be a special case.

Are you one? :D

I was joking :D

I'm no maths wiz. The mathematics department at my university is a world within a world.......

[Seshmeister]

And the Theoretical Physics department is a world within a galaxy within universe within a black hole... :)

The people that bought the apartment off of the maths lecturer told me that when he was showing them round he said 'There is a shower but I'm afraid although I've been living here for 4 years I haven't got around to getting it fixed so there is no hot water from it'. Buyer said 'So although the immerser lights up when you press this switch it doesn't heat up?'. 'There's a switch????'

[Seshmeister]

What's wrong with having synaesthesia? :|

If I'm trying to tell you at the bar I need 3 beers, 4 vodkas, 2 gins and a couple of glasses of wine I don't want you looking into the middle distance distracted by the pretty lights. :)

[Dr. Love]

lulz, you silly normies. that's not quite how it is. :)

[Hardrock69]

So Ace is a mathematical genius:headlights:

:lmao:

[Anonymous]

lulz, you silly normies. that's not quite how it is. :)

Why should we believe one who shamelessly sports, as his avatar, TEH TROLLFACE???

Riddle me that, Doc.

Cheers! :bottle: