Middle school Algebra is an ancient subject, with 4,000 years of history. One would expect that everything about Algebra 1 had been discovered years ago, as billions of people have since passed through the subject. The speaker was therefore extremely surprised when he recently found a simpler way to solve quadratic equations, compared to what is generally taught in textbooks and schools worldwide. He would be even more surprised if this method had completely eluded human discovery until the present day, and so he is now sharing the technique and its historical lineage with educators, historians, mathematicians, and the general public, in his quest for references from all mathematical cultures.

This interactive talk is part of the Outreach series at the Fields Institute. As such, the public is invited. The talk will be understandable to middle school students who understand the distributive property of multiplication, and may bring a fresh perspective to math for adults (whether working in mathematical fields or not). Given the general public focus, the talk will not be aimed only for specialists, but will also seek to entertain and share the excitement of mathematical thinking.

Bio:

Po-Shen Loh is a mathematician and social entrepreneur, working across the spectrum of mathematics and education, all around the world. He is the founder of the free learning platform expii.com, a math professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team. He has also featured in or co-created videos totaling a few million YouTube views.