Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about some real BGM Black Girl magic. Two
Speaker 1: high schoolers, yes, high schoolers, just casually strolled into a
Speaker 1: math class and solved a math problem that's been chilling,
Speaker 1: unsolved for two thousand years. They're just like, yeah, we
Speaker 1: got this. I didn't know. Maybe I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Mi Calcilla Johnson and Nikia Jackson from New Orleans. These
Speaker 1: two were seniors at Saint Mary's Academy back in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two. Now, while most of us were out here
Speaker 1: just trying to survive senior year, avoid senior writists, and
Speaker 1: go to a senior skip day without getting in trouble,
Speaker 1: these two were out here solving the Pythagoron theorem with trigonometry. Now,
Speaker 1: I know you probably can't spell pythagora in theorem let
Speaker 1: alone remember what it was. But it's the rule about
Speaker 1: triangles A square plus b squared equal c square. You know,
Speaker 1: basically saying, if you got a right angle triangle, the
Speaker 1: two short sides add up to the longside. Simple right. Well,
Speaker 1: we learned that in geometry turns out. Proving it in
Speaker 1: trigonometry was considered impossible, like, yes we can land on
Speaker 1: the moon, and yes, if I'm talking to my wife
Speaker 1: about dish detergent as soon as I open up my
Speaker 1: social media, dish detergent ads will be in my algorithm.
Speaker 1: But this solving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry, Nah, that's
Speaker 1: too difficult. But Calcia and the kid were like, hold
Speaker 1: our calculators. They use something called the law of signs,
Speaker 1: not like stop and yield, but sign and co sign.
Speaker 1: You remember that. Now, I'm not gonna boil you with
Speaker 1: math because I put myself to sleep. So let me
Speaker 1: break it down to you like I'm breaking it down
Speaker 1: to a five year old or somebody who got the
Speaker 1: brain capacity of cold and Martin. Imagine you got a
Speaker 1: lego triangle. The Pythagorean theorem is like saying, if I
Speaker 1: count the legos on this side and this side, they'll
Speaker 1: match the legos on the lawn on side. Easy. But
Speaker 1: to prove it with trigonometry is like building the whole
Speaker 1: triangle with no instructions and still having it turn out perfect. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I'm still trying to put my daughter's desk together for Christmas.
Speaker 1: I got folk screws left over, and I think I
Speaker 1: put the led lights on backwards. Dig this. These two
Speaker 1: teenagers presented their work at a professional math conference. These
Speaker 1: are grown adults with PhDs, and Calcia and the kid
Speaker 1: just walked in, like, what's up. Here's something y'all couldn't
Speaker 1: do in two thousand years and yeah, we're seventeen. Now
Speaker 1: fast forward to twenty twenty five, these girls are still
Speaker 1: killing it. They're in STEM programs now publishing math papers.
Speaker 1: I mean, what were you doing at seventeen eighteen years old? Personally,
Speaker 1: I was a felon just trying to graduate high school
Speaker 1: on a journey to be the best car hops Sonic
Speaker 1: has ever seen. But let's talk about how big this
Speaker 1: is for black culture. Historically, people haven't given black folks
Speaker 1: their flowers when it comes to science and innovation. These
Speaker 1: girls kicked that door open and said we belong here.
Speaker 1: In the words of Aliyah, age ain't nothing but a
Speaker 1: nothing barn. They showing everyone that black kids don't just
Speaker 1: play ball or rap. We can change the freaking world.
Speaker 1: So shout out to Calcia and Nikia. They proved that
Speaker 1: math is for us too. And they didn't just solve
Speaker 1: an equation. They reminded all of us what's possible when
Speaker 1: we dream big. So if you got kids, tell them
Speaker 1: to pick up a calculator. You never know. Your little
Speaker 1: one could be out here solving three thousand year old
Speaker 1: problems next. And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: I didn't know