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Lehi teen discovers new math code for Pascal’s triangle

Posted at 10:04 PM, Oct 28, 2013
and last updated 2013-10-29 00:04:22-04

LEHI -- A Lehi teenager makes a mathematical discovery.

Brock Brown may have made math simpler for high school students. The 16-year-old student was sitting in class learning about Pascal's triangle when midway during class boredom struck him. He began to think, ‘surely there must be a simpler way of solving this.’

"We were learning about Pascal’s triangle and it looked too long and I didn't want to have to do it," said Brown who came up with "Brock's Theorem" in January.

"I just did the math and figured it out it wasn't all that hard," said Brown.

It only took the teenager 15 minutes to discover the new mathematical code.

"I took it to my math teacher and she was impressed and I think I came home and showed it to my Mom -- she saw it and she was taking it to class with her math professor and she had got on friendly terms with him because she has a really hard time with math. I'm sorry. That sounded really bad that sounded really bad," Brown said looking at his mom, Sarah.

"He's been an interesting child because he's been more intelligent than most kids his age; he's stumped me since he was probably 3 years old," Brown’s mother said.

Brock tried explaining his new theory on Pascal's triangle to Fox 13, but he couldn't divulge too many details. It's being copyrighted and could end up in precalculus books someday.

"It's exciting it's interesting but it doesn't seem all that new to me because I've figured other things out just not gotten as much recognition," Brown said who wants to be a seminary teacher when he grows up.