Iraqi Teen Gives Solution To 300-Year-Old Math Puzzle

May 29, 2009 5:40 p.m. EST

Stockholm, Sweden (AHN) - A 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant in Sweden has solved a 300-year-old mathematical puzzle dubbed the Bernoulli numbers, though the formula was previously known and available, according to the Swedish press.

It took Mohamed Altoumaimi just four months to find the formula for the complex calculation named after 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, the Dagens Nyheter daily reported Thursday.

The teen showed his formula to teachers in the Falun high school where he studies but they were skeptic.

"When I first showed it to my teachers, none of them thought the formula I had written down really worked," Altoumaimi told the Falu Kuriren newspaper.

He asked professors at the Uppsala University, one of the top educational institutions in Sweden, to check his formula. The professors found the formula correct.

A statement from the university, however, clarified that the solution to the Bernoulli numbers was previously known to the mathematical community. Uppsala University senior lecturer Jan-Ake Lindahl, who verified Altoumaimi's formula, also said it was readily available in several databases.

Lindahl said the Iraqi teen student is very talented.