Ideas on Davidson Institute Fellows Scholarship

[MevsEinstein]

Hello Physics Forums!

There is a scholarship for gifted children under the age of 18 provided by Davidson Institute. What you need to do is write a research paper on a topic and then judges decide if the submitter should get a 50k scholarship, 25k scholarship, 10k scholarship, honorable mention, or nothing. For more information, click this link. Do you have any ideas on what to research? I am planning to submit on either Mathematics, Engineering, or Science.

 

[Office_Shredder]

You can see what the 2021 winners did here

https://www.davidsongifted.org/gift...ellows/current-and-past-fellows/2021-fellows/

At first glance, if you don't know what category you're trying to compete under, you're probably not able to compete in any of them. These are pretty high level projects.

 

[Vanadium 50]

You may be putting the cart before the horse. Accomplish first, worry about the reward second.

 

[MevsEinstein]

You may be putting the cart before the horse. Accomplish first, worry about the reward second.

I agree. That is why I want ideas on what to do. The reward doesn’t matter really since participating gives me experience for later.

 

[MevsEinstein]

Hey I got an idea. How about I do what Riemann did in his paper and set up a hard problem? I got one in mind that can help us understand more about twin primes if my conjecture is proved.

 

[Orodruin]

How do you know whatever your conjecture is has not already been proven/disproven? It would likely not be sufficient just to pose a “hard” problem. You would have to do research to prove that the resolution to the conjecture being true or false would have far reaching consequences.

what Riemann did in his paper

Which one? He wrote a lot of papers.

 

[MevsEinstein]

Which one? He wrote a lot of papers.

The one where he stated the Riemann hypothesis. I will continue my research on the conjecture. It is similar to the prime number theorem but it is about twin primes instead. And I will find out if it has already been proven which would be great.

 

[berkeman]

For more information, click this link.

For some reason your link is malformed. Here is the corrected link:

https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-programs/fellows-scholarship/

 

[MevsEinstein]

For some reason your link is malformed. Here is the corrected link:

https://www.davidsongifted.org/gifted-programs/fellows-scholarship/

Okay, thanks!

 

[berkeman]

And it looks like the 2022 deadline has passed, so most likely you are thinking about what to work on for future year application periods...

The 2022 application deadline has passed.

 

[MevsEinstein]

And it looks like the 2022 deadline has passed, so most likely you are thinking about what to work on for future year application periods...

Yes since I want to think of something so I have more time on working for the scholarship. Making research papers scare me, so I have to spend a lot of time.

 

[MevsEinstein]

@berkeman thanks for liking my post! It hasn’t happened for a while.

 

[MevsEinstein]

I made a new formula for finding the area of oblique triangles. Would this be a good idea?

 

[Orodruin]

How do you know that it is a new formula?
Why would it be any more useful than already existing ones?
What makes it an extraordinary achievement?

 

[TeethWhitener]

OP, I would strongly recommend you find a research advisor somehow. It is not unheard of for HS students to do original research, but it is very unlikely they’ll even know where to begin without a good mentor.

 

[Vanadium 50]

I made a new formula for finding the area of oblique triangles.

No, you didn't.
At best, you have rearranged the existing formula.

 

[MevsEinstein]

No, you didn't.

Does this already exist:
$K=\frac{\tan C (a^2+b^2-c^2)}{4}$ I don't know tbh

After thinking about it, I won't use this formula for Davidson Institute since it requires four variables

OP, I would strongly recommend you find a research advisor somehow. It is not unheard of for HS students to do original research, but it is very unlikely they’ll even know where to begin without a good mentor.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Orodruin]

I don't know tbh

This is a big big warning flag.

If you do not know whether you made an extraordinary breakthrough or not, then the absolutely most likely scenario is that you have not.

Since your formula uses four variables (I have not checked its validity) it is essentially useless. The typical thing to know in a triangle are three independent quantities (at least one length and then lengths and angles). The other quantities can be expressed in terms of those three. Using four just complicates your formula for no good reason whatsoever.

The Davidson Institute wants real research that is extraordinary for your age. Simply spending an afternoon thinking about a project or a problem is not going to cut it even if you are a genius.

 

[MevsEinstein]

I found my research advisor. You can close this thread now :)

 

[Vanadium 50]

(I have not checked its validity

It's valid. It's a convoluted way of expressing height * length / 2. It's law of cosines to get you x^/2, the tangent turns it into xy/2.

Of course, taking a simple formula and obfuscating it is not a great accomplishment.

 

[Mark44]

I have a new formula for the area of a rectangle whose dimensions are W and L.

$$A = L \cdot \sqrt{W^2 + L^2} \cdot \sin( \arctan\left(\dfrac W L\right) )$$

My formula uses only two variables. Do I get a prize?

 

[Vanadium 50]

Sure you want sine and not $\sqrt{1-\cos^2}$?

Just trying to be helpful.

 

[Mark44]

Sure you want sine and not $\sqrt{1-\cos^2}$?

Just trying to be helpful.

No, that change would make my formula overly complicated. My motto is "Endeavor to eschew obfuscation and de-emphasize the utilization of nonessential sesquipedalian pronouncements."