Shouryya Ray, 16, from Dresden, Germany, solved two particle dynamics theories which physicists have previously been able to calculate only by using powerful computers.

The puzzles were originally posed by Sir Isaac Newton, according to a report yesterday in the Daily Mail.

His solutions mean scientists can now calculate the flight path of a thrown ball and predict how it will hit and bounce off a wall.

Shouryya came across the problems during a school trip to Dresden University where professors claimed they were uncrackable.

"I think it was just schoolboy naïvety. I didn't believe there couldn't be a solution," Shouryya said.

He began solving complicated equations as a six-year-old but says he's no genius. "There are other things I wish I was better at - football for one," he said.

Shouryya said he enjoys the "intrinsic beauty" of maths.

When he was young, his father, an engineer, began testing his brain by setting him arithmetic problems.