Chika Ofili: Nigerian 12-year-old boy receives award for discovering new maths formula

Chika Ofili, a 12-year-old Nigerian boy based in the UK, has received a special award over the weekend at the TruLittle Hero Awards after discovering a new way to divide in mathematics.

Ofili’s teacher, Miss Mary Ellis, who is also the head of the Mathematics department at Westminster Under School said he discovered the formula while solving a holiday assignment.

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Miss Ellis said in an educational journal that she gave a book called First Steps for Problem Solvers (published by the UKMT) to study during the holidays

The book had several divisibility tests that used to quickly work out whether a number is exactly divisible by either 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 before you start dividing. The book had no memorable test listed for checking divisibility by 7.

Ofili, however, discovered the formula and had an algebraic proof to back it up.

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The young mathematician genius’ new formula created a new divisibility by seven in mathematics.

His new formula for divisibility of 7 is to multiply the last digit in the figure and then add everything together, then check if the new figure is a multiple of 7.

For example, to check if 7 can divide 532, the process is illustrated below:

53 + 2 x 5= 63

63, is a multiple of 7, hence 7 can divide it. Amazing isn’t it???.

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