Boston science museum claims their exhibit was right - and 15-year-old boy did NOT discover a math error
- Virginia high school student, Joseph Rosenfeld, was on family trip to the Museum of Science when he spotted the error
- He noticed minus signs in the equation for golden ratio, part of the Mathematica exhibit, where there should've been plus signs
- The sophomore left a message at the desk and later received letter saying equation would be corrected
- Museum released statement Tuesday saying its way of presenting golden ratio is 'less common - but no less accurate'
Boston's Museum of Science insists a 15-year-old boy did not find a math error in the golden ratio at a 34-year-old exhibit.
The institution initially wrote to Joseph Rosenfeld when he got in touch last month, acknowledging the mistake and assuring him it would be fixed.
But the curators have since come out to say the formula, which uses minus signs instead of plus signs, is a 'less common - but no less accurate - way to present it.'
Virginia high school student Joseph Rosenfeld (pictured), 15, made the discovery while on a family trip to Boston's Museum of Science in June
Virginia resident Joseph Rosenfeld had been visiting the museum on a family trip when he spotted the unusual format.
Rosenfeld, a sophomore at Handley High School, was ecstatic.
'I was just really excited that I found an error,' he told Boston.com. 'That doesn't happen every day.'
After visiting the exhibit, he left a message at the desk and later received a letter from the museum's exhibit content developer, Alana Parkes, informing him the equation would be corrected.
Parkes wrote that the mistake had been there for a 'very long time' without being noticed.
'An unusual thing about Mathematica is that the whole exhibition is considered an artifact,' Parkes wrote in the letter, Boston.com reported.
Rosenfeld, a sophomore at Handley High School, noticed minus signs in the equation where there should have been plus signs. The golden ratio (left) in equation form is as follows: a/b = (a+b)/a = 1.6180339887498948420 …
Mathematica was created by the design team made up of Charles and Ray Eames, which opened at the museum in 1981
'This means that decisions about everything in the exhibition requires both Curatorial and Content Development consent (and most things can't be changed at all). It also means that this mistake has been there for a very long time.'
A permanent exhibit in the museum, Mathematica was created by the design team made up of Charles and Ray Eames, which opened at the museum in 1981, according to the museum's site.
On Tuesday, the Museum of Science released a statement saying they are not surprised the 'enterprising student' noticed the minus signs because the way the 'Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common - but no less accurate - way to present it'.
'It's exciting that people around the country are talking about math and science and that, in the process, we learned something too,' the statement read.
Rosenfeld has since been invited by the museum to see the Science Behind Pixar exhibition.
He said he hopes to return to the state to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On Tuesday, the Museum of Science released a statement saying they are not surprised the 'enterprising student' noticed the minus signs because the way the 'Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common - but no less accurate - way to present it'
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