Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Dorothy Vaughan were three members of NASA's mathematical work unit that helped astronauts get to space. Now two teenagers from New Orleans are set to continue the legacy of the pioneering mathematicians.

The achievements of Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson have taken the world by storm. This week, the prestigious Association for Women Mathematicians, which aims to encourage women and girls to study and have active careers in the mathematical sciences, shared the story on Facebook. On Twitter, the American Mathematical Society encouraged the two teens to get their work examined by a peer-reviewed journal.

Writing for The Guardian, Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans, said Calcea and Ne'Kiya, both high school students, recently presented their findings at an  American Mathematical Society meeting typically attended by university math researchers.

In February, Georgia Tech announced that the American Mathematical Society Spring Southeastern Sectional Meeting at the School of Mathematics would host 800 mathematicians on campus for a theorem-filled weekend of sessions and lectures.

According to the conference meetings webpage,  the two teens presented "An Impossible Proof Of Pythagoras" on March 18 during a special session on undergraduate mathematics and statistics research. 

The Abstract reads in part: "In the 2000 years since trigonometry was discovered, it's always been assumed that any alleged proof of Pythagoras's Theorem based on trigonometry must be circular... in our lecture, we present a new proof of Pythagoras's Theorem, which is based on a fundamental result in trigonometry—the Law of Sines—and we show that the proof is independent of the Pythagorean trig identity \sin^2x + \cos^2x = 1."

"Black girls' experiences in mathematics remain invisible and largely untheorized, and this invisibility produces obscurity to most mathematics teachers; consequently, program and learning design efforts remain non-existent," wrote Nicole M. Joseph, an assistant professor of mathematics education, for the Virginia Council of Mathematics Education.

Catherine Roberts, executive director of the American Mathematical Society, told one outlet that members celebrated the early career mathematicians for sharing their work with the wider mathematics community. Still, she urged them to publish their findings so "community members can examine their results to determine whether their proof is a correct contribution to the mathematics literature."

Roberts also expressed hope that the pair will proceed with studying math to have a promising career in the field. "We encourage them to continue their studies in mathematics," she said.

New Orleans students Calcea Johnson and Ne'Kiya Jackson say they've proved Pythagoras' Theorem -- something academics have thought was impossible for 2,000 years.

Now, @amermathsoc is encouraging them to submit their work to a peer-reviewed journal.

https://t.co/2Cd569Wivg

— POCIT (@pocintech) March 27, 2023