Angela Moore has spent three years working to answer a million-dollar question. A self-described “recreational mathematician,” Angela saw a newspaper ad in 2013 offering a $1 million prize for anyone who could solve a math problem known as “the Beal conjecture.” Named for a billionaire banker who funded the prize to encourage interest in math, the theorem offered the fortune for a peer-reviewed proof of the conjecture or a counter example.
Angela was intrigued. She devised a novel solution based on the idea that zero could, in some instances, be considered a positive integer (a stipulation of the Beal conjecture). “I looked into the history of zero and it turns out that in a lot of mathematical instances, zero surprisingly is positive and it produces different results than neutral zero does.”
If that sounds a bit philosophical, it’s no surprise. Angela minored in philosophy at Fairfield University and drew on her studies to formulate her zero-based solution.
Her proof was concrete enough to win an Angela a Milli Award from Westfair communications and invitations to present her solution at conferences held by the Mathematical Association of America and the California Mathematics Council Community Colleges.
Angela submitted refereed proceedings of the latter conference to the American Mathematical Society, which administers the Beal Prize. Unfortunately, she was told the proceedings did not qualify as peer-reviewed—an interpretation of contest rules with which she strongly disagreed.
Angela is now busy solving a different set of problems. She has illustrated a series of comic books titled “Truth 30% Off” geared toward empowering kids struggling with bullying, body image and other social pressures and wants to share them with after-school programs.
“I like doing things that get people to take action, to take the next step,” says Angela, an office assistant in Yale’s Human Research Protection Program. “It doesn’t matter what someone’s going through, everyone has a duty to do something positive in their community.”
Learn more about Angela’s comic book series at truth30percentoff.wordpress.com.