Meet chika ofili, a 12-year-old Nigerian boy who recently received a Trulittle hero academic award for discovering a math formula.
Chika Ofili, a 12-year-old Nigerian boy based in the United Kingdom, has received the ‘TruLittle Hero Awards’ for discovering a new mathematical formula.
The ‘TruLittle Hero Awards’ is an annual ceremony that recognizes, celebrates, and rewards outstanding achievements of remarkable children and young people under the age of 17 years all over the UK.
At the 2019 edition of the award, which held over the weekend, ofili was given the award for discovering a new formula with which to test for divisibility by seven.
Mary Ellis, chika’s math teacher, who is also the head of the mathematics department at the Westminster Under School, said he discovered the new formula while solving a holiday assignment.
She had reportedly given the young boy a book, which contained several divisibility tests used to quickly work out if a figure is exactly divisible by the numbers 2 to 9, but the book had no memorable test for checking divisibility by 7.
chika was said to have solved this by devising a new formula, which involves taking the last digit of any whole number, multiplying it by 5 and then adding it to the remaining part of the number to get a new number.
The young scholar also worked out an algebraic proof to back this up. If this new number is divisible by 7, then the original number is divisible by 7, he found.
Other Past Winners from Nigeria
2016
TruLittle Artistic Hero (U17) Sophia Akintunde
TruLittle Scribe Hero (U17) Tami Olorunfemi
TruLittle Musician Hero (U17) Jasmine Adekola
TruLittle Samaritan Hero (U17) Zara Okocha
TruLittle Entrepreneur Hero (U17) Remilekun Odelana
2017
TruLittle Samaritan Hero (Under 17years) Joshua Okolonji
TruLittle Creative Hero (Under 17years) Onyekachukwu Ogene
2018
TruLittle Samaritan Hero (Under 12) Dara Adewole
TruLittle Sports Hero (U12) Praise Oladipo
TruLittle Sports Hero (U17) Michaela Taiwo
TruLittle Entrepreneur Hero (Under 12) Khalida Adebowale
TruLittle Academic Hero (Under 17) Tamilore Akarakiri
