#长文创作激励计划#
"Don't let my mom see it."
Tan Fang Lin, you may not have heard of this name, but in the international mathematical community, her achievements have been thunderous. In 2019, while other peers were still busy with high school life, she was invited to participate in a grand event that brought together the world's top scientists for her achievements in solving the world's mathematical problems.
To everyone's surprise, in the face of the swarm of praise and attention, the young genius chose to politely decline all interview requests, including CCTV, leaving only one such intriguing sentence.
Why does this girl have such great abilities?
And why don't you want your mother to see your accomplishments?
In October 2019, Shanghai ushered in an academic feast - the 2nd World Laureates Conference, a grand event that brought together the world's top scientists, a figure is particularly eye-catching, she is not an old scholar, nor a middle-aged elite, but a young and beautiful Chinese girl, she is Tan Fanglin, a 15-year-old high school student at the time.
On this occasion known as the "world's strongest brain" gathering, her appearance is undoubtedly an outlier. However, it was this "outlier" that made the whole venue look sideways, and the participating scientists cast curious glances at this young genius, wanting to find out how deep her talent really was.
The reason why Tan Fanglin's name can appear at such a high-level academic conference is because of her extraordinary achievements in the field of mathematics. Just before attending this conference, she had successfully solved a worldwide problem that had plagued the mathematical community for many years.
This achievement not only made her stand out from her peers, but also attracted a lot of attention in the academic community as a whole, and her genius did not happen overnight, as she already showed amazing mathematical talent when she was a junior high school student. At that time, she successfully solved a mathematical problem that was considered a world-class problem, an achievement that many senior mathematicians were impressed.
It was this breakthrough that led her to be invited to participate in the first World Laureates Congress in 2018, becoming the youngest participant at that time. Imagine what it would be like for a 14-year-old junior high school student to be in a venue filled with Nobel laureates and the world's top scientists.
Tan Fanglin did not feel stage fright because of the age gap, on the contrary, she had in-depth exchanges with these academic leaders with her profound knowledge and keen thinking, showing her academic quality far beyond her age.
Tan Fang Lin's success is not accidental.
She was mentored by a group of professional mathematics professors who quickly discovered that Tan Fanglin was not only gifted, but also had extraordinary learning skills and understanding, and was able to quickly absorb complex mathematical concepts and integrate them into more esoteric problems.
Under the guidance of the professors, the level of mathematics has improved by leaps and bounds, and she is not satisfied with the knowledge in the textbook, but takes the initiative to learn more advanced mathematical theories. The professors tailored a study plan for her, giving her access to cutting-edge mathematical research, and Tan Fanglin's speed of learning surprised these experienced professors.
Not only is she able to quickly understand complex mathematical concepts, but she is also able to come up with unique insights and sometimes even bring new inspiration to professors, and the mathematical problems she delves into are often closely related to the real world. For example, the world's puzzles she solves involve the estimation of Fibonacci and Bezu numbers.
These seemingly abstract mathematical concepts are actually widely used in many fields such as natural science, computer science, and economics. She didn't just solve problems for the sake of solving them, but she really fell in love with the process of mathematical exploration, and in her opinion, every mathematical problem is a puzzle to be solved, and the process of solving these puzzles is an exciting adventure again and again.
Tan Fanglin's achievements are not only reflected in the specific problems she solves, but also in her deep understanding and unique insights into mathematics, and in her exchanges with other scientists, she is often able to come up with novel ideas that can sometimes even provide new solutions to some long-standing mathematical problems.
And she is not complacent about her achievements, on the contrary, she maintains a humble attitude and always maintains a sense of reverence for mathematics. She knows that her knowledge is just a drop in the ocean of mathematics, and there are countless unknowns waiting for her to explore, and this humility and thirst for knowledge has earned her more respect in the academic world.
Tan Fanglin's personality can be described as "reserved", and despite her impressive achievements in the field of mathematics, she is not keen on putting herself in the public eye. This personality trait is especially evident in her interviews with the media, when her research results attracted widespread attention, and many media outlets, including CCTV, expressed their intention to interview her.
To the surprise of many, Tan declined the interview requests, a cautious attitude to public exposure that contrasts sharply with the pursuit of celebrity fame by many of her peers. In today's society, many young people crave attention and recognition in various ways, but she has chosen a different path.
She prefers to devote her time and energy to the study of mathematics that she is truly passionate about, rather than indulging in public acclaim. Talking about Fang Lin's low-key style, which is fully reflected in a sentence she said to reporters, when asked why she was reluctant to be interviewed, she said: "Don't let my mother see it." "
This seemingly casual sentence actually reveals her indifferent attitude towards fame and fortune and the importance she attaches to her family, and there may be multiple meanings behind this sentence. On the one hand, it may reflect that she does not want to cause unnecessary stress or distress to her family because of her achievements, and she may be worried that too much media attention will affect her family's normal life.
On the other hand, it may also be that she expresses her gratitude for homeschooling, and she does not want her achievements to be exaggerated, because she knows that there is the silent support of her family behind it, and this attitude shows her extraordinary maturity and wisdom.
At an age when many people may be complacent about their successes, she was able to remain so sober and humble, which is undoubtedly inseparable from her family education.
Speaking of Tan Fang Lin's family, we have to mention her parents.
They are both university professors with their own achievements in the academic world, and surprisingly, they did not adopt the usual "tiger mom and tiger dad" style of strict discipline when educating their daughter, but gave her a lot of freedom to grow.
This type of education can be said to be very rare in the Chinese educational environment, and in many families, parents tend to have strict planning and control over their children's learning and life. But Tan Fanglin's parents chose a different path, believing that the true flower of genius needs to be in a free environment to fully bloom.
Tan Fanglin's parents know that coercion and oppression will only stifle their children's creativity and interest in learning, so they never force their children to do things she doesn't like. Even when it comes to learning, they give their daughter full autonomy.
For example, they don't force their children to attend cram and tutoring classes, as many Chinese parents do. Instead, they encourage children to schedule their learning according to their own interests and needs.
This free family atmosphere provided a good soil for Tan Fanglin's all-round development, and she not only showed extraordinary talent in mathematics, but also excelled in other subjects. More importantly, this type of education has cultivated the independent character of this little girl, and she has learned to make her own decisions and take responsibility for her own choices.
Despite the full freedom, the parents are not completely laissez-faire, they lead by example, influence their daughter with their academic attitude, their pursuit of knowledge and love for academics, subtly influence their daughter.
Her parents encouraged her to develop a variety of interests, so in addition to studying, Tan Fanglin also participated in some sports activities and artistic creations, and this holistic educational philosophy made her a healthy and energetic young person.
The most striking thing about Fang Lin's path to mathematical genius is undoubtedly her successful process of solving a world-class mathematical problem, which began with a strong interest in mathematical journals.
As a junior high school student with a passion for mathematics, she regularly reads a variety of professional mathematics publications, including the world-renowned United States Mathematical Monthly. It was in this journal that Tan Fanglin stumbled upon a topic that aroused her strong interest—"Estimation of Fibonacci and Bezu Numbers".
At first glance, the subject may seem obscure, but for Fang Lin, it was like discovering a puzzle to solve, which sparked her strong desire to explore, the Fibonacci number is a well-known concept in the mathematical community, and each number is the sum of the first two numbers.
The Bezu number is an important concept in number theory, which is closely related to the greatest common divisor, and the relationship between these two seemingly unrelated mathematical concepts is the core of this puzzle. She didn't back down when she learned that this problem had plagued the mathematical community for years and that many top mathematicians had not been able to fully solve it.
Instead, this fact fueled her to challenge herself and try to solve this world-class problem.
Solving such a complex mathematical problem is not an easy task, especially for a junior high school student, who has to devote a lot of time and energy to this research while ensuring her daily learning. She began to devote every minute of her spare time to researching the problem.
In the morning, while the rest of her classmates were still asleep, she was already sitting at her desk, immersed in the intricacies of formulas.
During lunch break, while other classmates were frolicking in the playground, she chose to stay in the classroom and continue her math exploration.
After school, she is often the last student to leave the classroom because she always wants to spend more time on this puzzle.
Even at home, she devoted almost all of her free time to this research, and her room was filled with scratch paper, densely filled with mathematical formulas and derivation processes. Sometimes, she would get up in the middle of the night to continue her research because she was so excited about an idea, and her focus and enthusiasm made her parents feel both relieved and a little worried.
In the process of research, she encountered countless difficulties and setbacks, and sometimes she would get stuck on a certain derivation step for several days, and she could not break through. Sometimes, she thinks she's found the right direction, only to find out that it's a dead end.
Every time she gets stuck, she tells herself, "Try again, maybe you'll succeed next time." She constantly adjusts her thinking, tries different ways to solve problems, and when one method doesn't work, she switches to another, believing that with perseverance, she can find a breakthrough one day.
In the process, she also received support from the school and family, and her math teacher saw her enthusiasm for this problem and took the initiative to provide her with some guidance and advice. Although her parents were worried that she was overworked, they also respected her choice and created a good research environment for her.
After nearly a year of unremitting efforts, Tan Fanglin finally made a breakthrough in this problem. She succeeded in deriving a new mathematical formula that not only solved the original problem, but also surpassed the research results of her predecessors in some aspects.
When she finally completed the whole derivation process and confirmed that her results were correct, she almost jumped for excitement. Tan Fanglin's discovery not only solves the specific problem of "estimation of Fibonacci sequences and Bezu numbers", but also provides new ideas and methods for research in related fields.
Her work is not only theoretically significant, but also has potential value in practical applications, such as computer science, cryptography, and other fields.
In order to verify her research results, Tan Fanglin decided to participate in the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Competition, and she carefully prepared research reports and presentation materials to elaborate on her research process and results. In the competition, her performance left a deep impression on the judges, who were surprised to find that this seemingly ordinary junior high school student actually solved a problem that had plagued the academic community for many years.
In the end, with his outstanding research results, he won the first prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Competition.
This award is not only an affirmation of her efforts, but also has attracted wide attention from the academic community, and many experts and scholars have begun to pay attention to this young mathematical genius and want to know more about her research results.
Her success caught the attention of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and some of the top mathematicians expressed their desire to meet the young genius and learn more about her research process and ideas.
Fang Lin's story provides us with an opportunity to rethink education, and her success proves that giving children enough freedom and trust may be better for their development than strict control. At the same time, her experience also tells us that the real motivation to learn should come from within, not from external pressure.
The essence of education is to stimulate children's inner potential, develop their ability to think independently and learn for life. Only in this way can we cultivate more talents like Tan Fanglin and contribute to the progress and development of society.
