April 9, 2021
As part of their graduation requirements, each MPA senior completes a senior performance. These performances take on many forms, from speeches, to piano concertos, to storytelling. Tanner Gasteazoro ’21 solved the Basel Problem.
Originally posed in 1400s, the Basel Problem, which calculates the precise sum of the reciprocals of the squares of natural numbers, remained unanswered for 300 years until a Swiss Mathematician named Leonhard Euler finally solved it at the age of 28.
Tanner has found a deep love for the kind of mathematical analysis required to solve the Basel problem, and since transferring to MPA in the winter of his ninth grade year, he has taken AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics & Probability, Honors Precalculus, Advanced Algebra II/Trigonometry, and Geometry. “I’ve always been naturally inquisitive, and the logic in math problems has always been something that helped me to continue that. Using the logical aspects of problem solving I learned in math and my inquisition, I am able to solve problems in my life as well. Tanner says. “I would like to thank Ms. Anderson, Mr. Noland, Mr. Shapiro, and the entirety of the math and science departments for answering my endless questions—literally to infinity.”
Tanner will attend Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA.
Click here to view Tanner’s senior performance.
