When Kevin Chou, who is currently a junior at Syosset High School, was learning geometry in ninth grade he was confused about something his teacher told the class about circle proofs. There were theorems for ways of finding the angle formed by two secants or two chords, but the class was told that there was no direct theorem for finding the angle formed by a secant and a chord. But it's right here, he thought, when he looked at the diagrams they were working on. He wondered why they were being taught to solve for the angle in a roundabout way when he could see a direct formula.

He showed it to his research program teacher, Arthur Kalish, who was quite surprised and pleased to see that Chou had discovered an original theorem that up to now had not been taught in geometry. He encouraged Chou to devise a proof for this theorem so that it could be submitted for recognition and publication in Mathematics Teacher magazine, a national journal that is read by math teachers across the country.

Although Chou spotted the theorem quite easily, devising a proof that would validate the theorem was a bit more difficult. He went through revision after revision until they were satisfied that it was ready. Their perseverance paid off, and the December 2004/January 2005 issue of Mathematics Teacher includes an article detailing Chou's "Secant-Chord Theorem," which states, "The measure of an angle formed by a secant and a chord intersecting on a circle, but not the inscribed angle, is one-half the sum of the measures of the arcs intercepted by it and its vertical angle."

Chou is now very involved in math research and is preparing for the Al Kalfus Math Fair with a project that examines the mathematical properties of ellipses with a theoretically elliptical pool table. "The research program here has been a great help to me. I never would have thought that I would be doing original research in high school," said Chou.