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The student from Minas Gerais uses only addition and multiplication to reach the result that usually stumps students worldwide. Delighted, Professor Fred turned the idea into a formula and submitted it to a mathematics journal, and now there is a new way to calculate the square root.
Júlia Pimentel, an 11-year-old from Minas Gerais, invented a new formula on her own to calculate the square root using simple addition and multiplication, and her method was published in one of Brazil’s most important scientific mathematics journals. The story began in the classroom and ended in the pages of a specialized publication.
Júlia Pimentel Ferreira uses multiplication and addition to reach a result that usually puzzles young and adult students worldwide. According to information from G1, the girl is from Minas Gerais and said she was proud to have thought of the solution, in her own way of understanding things. Her classmate Lara Barros and math teacher Frederico Ferreira, known as Fred, were impressed, and it was Fred himself who turned the idea into a formula and sent it to a scientific journal. According to the coordinator of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, the discovery may still open new studies.
The 11-year-old girl who rethought the square root
Júlia Pimentel Ferreira, 11 years old and from Minas Gerais, created a simple and quick formula to calculate the square root, a calculation that puzzles young and adult students worldwide. Using only multiplication and addition, she found her own way to reach the result.
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According to Júlia, the school’s content used to be just a set of rules to follow, until she realized that she could also create new rules from them, in her own way of understanding things. The student said she felt proud of the achievement:
“I’m proud for having thought of this and Fred listening to me.”
How Júlia’s Square Root Formula Works
The best part of Júlia’s method is that it avoids large operations, being easy, simple, and quick. To find the square root of 144, for example, the first step is to multiply 10×10 to get close, which gives 100.
Next, just add the 10 used in the first multiplication, the next number, 11, and the previous result, 100, reaching 121. Finally, just add 121, 11, and 12, reaching 144, so that the square root of 144 is the last number added in the operation, that is, 12. The entire logic is built only with additions and multiplications that anyone can do.
The Reaction of the School and the Teacher
The first to know about the news, after Júlia herself, was her classmate Lara Barros, who was impressed with the new way of calculating the square root. At first, she didn’t understand anything, but after her friend explained, she embraced the idea:
“I thought she is very genius.”
The school’s math teacher, Frederico Ferreira, Fred, classified the discovery as fantastic, something he had never seen used by students or taught in schools and colleges. For him, it was a completely new way to solve the problem: “It was something completely different from the traditional and fantastic.”
The Formula That Reached a Scientific Journal
Impressed, Fred didn’t stop at just listening. Based on Júlia’s idea, he constructed a large formula and sent it to one of the most important mathematical scientific journals in Brazil, so that, officially, a new way to calculate the square root came to exist, all thanks to the 11-year-old girl.
For Gustavo Araújo, national coordinator of the Brazilian Mathematical Society, the formula can go beyond a simple calculation and, in the future, open new studies. According to him, the method could “trigger the study of a more advanced theory,” with possible advances not only for mathematics but for the entire scientific community.
Júlia Pimentel, 11 years old and a native of Minas Gerais, showed that even something as traditional as the square root can be looked at in a new way, using only addition and multiplication.
Her insight, transformed into a formula by Professor Fred and published in one of the most important mathematics journals in Brazil, earned the admiration of her colleague, the professor, and the Brazilian Mathematical Society, which sees the seed of future studies there.
More than a clever shortcut, the case is a reminder that there are various paths to the same result, and not always the ones learned for decades in schools, and that curiosity, at any age, can open new doors.
And you, what did you think of Júlia’s formula for the square root? Would you have liked to learn mathematics this way in school? Share your opinion and exchange ideas with other readers about education and ways of learning.
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