Run jointly by the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research and the Wellington Mathematics Association, the competition gave students a chance to work on mathematical problems that are quite different from those studied in school.
Dr Dillon Mayhew, a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Operations Research, says students often get the impression that mathematics is all about applying rules. “An event like this shows them that mathematics requires creativity and imagination as well as technical ability. One aspect of the competition is to encourage the participants to think about studying mathematics at university.”
In the morning, teams were quizzed with shorter questions, similar to those posed in the International Mathematical Olympiad. The dynamic changed in the afternoon when students were presented with a problem in industrial optimisation.
“The teams were challenged to find the best possible location for a central warehouse, taking into account the location of subsidiary warehouses and the number of goods being transferred between them,” explains Dr Mayhew.
The judging panel was impressed with the efforts of all the teams, but three were singled out—a Wellington College team came first, Tawa College took second, and a team from Onslow College placed third. Competitors were from seven different high schools throughout the Wellington region.
“The competition is the first collaboration between Victoria and the Wellington Mathematics Association, but we intend it to become an annual event.”
To get a feeling for the types of questions posed, try the following: At a party, some people shake hands. Let n be the number of people who shake hands with an odd number of people. Why is n even?