Boston Museum Of Science's Math Exhibit 'Error' Not An Error

BOSTON (CBS) – A math exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science may not have been wrong, after all. But according to museum officials, the high school student who alerted them to an error wasn't wrong either.

Fifteen-year-old Joseph Rosenfield, a sophomore from Handley High School in Virginia, found what he believed to be an error in the Golden Ratio that was part of the Mathematica exhibit – a subtraction sign where there should have been an addition sign.

The museum looked into Rosenfield's critique, and determined that he was correct. In a letter to the teenager, museum officials said they would correct the exhibit, which was created in the 1960s.

But on Wednesday, a representative for the Museum of Science said that while Rosenfield was correct, the museum's initial display of the formula was right as well.

It turns out, there is more than one way to present the Golden Ratio.

"It's not at all surprising that this enterprising student noticed the minus signs because the way the Museum presents the Golden Ratio in its exhibit is in fact the less common -- but no less accurate -- way to present it," the museum said in a statement. "It's exciting that people around the country are talking about math and science and that, in the process, we learned something too."

Museum officials thanked Rosenfield for his enthusiasm about math, and for the Mathematica exhibit.