Mathex 2023
The annual Manawatu Mathematics Association Mathex competition was held on Thursday August 17th. Palmerston North Boys' High School fielded three Year 9 teams and three Year 10 teams. Given that PNBHS has won both year levels for the past two years, what is the probability that the school would win both year levels again?
The competition consisted of two rounds – an initial practical component and a second round that was a quick-fire 15 minute, 20 question shootout. Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya, who made great contributions to the theory of partial differential equations in the 1800s, said this about mathematics – “Many who have had an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confuse it with arithmetic and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is a science which requires a great amount of creativity and imagination”. All teams present would need to draw on their creativity and imagination if they were to perform well.
At the end of the first round the leading Year 9 team – PNBHS Deltas – were behind Awatapu College by one point. A strong run in the quick-fire round saw the Deltas surge ahead to take first place ahead of Awatapu by one point with a total of 21 out of 30. PNGHS were third with 19 points.
Similarly, the leading Year 10 team – the PNBHS Alphas - scored an impressive 19 out of 20 in their first round yet were behind PNGHS by one point. Their only hope of victory was to have a clear run through the quick-fire round and to see PNGHS drop two points. They accomplished a most impressive perfect round, with minutes to spare. However, PNGHS only dropped one point, so the competition went to a dramatic, sudden death tie-breaker. Tension was high, yet the PNBHS Alphas held their nerve and it was the speed of Quinn “The Reacher” Shearman and the raw computational power of Kexu “Fastest gun in the East” Chen that saw them carry the day, again by a narrow margin of less than a second in front of PNGHS. Their combined score of 29 out of 30 was impressive, when you consider that Wanganui Collegiate trailed in third place with a total of 22. The other Year 10 teams, the Betas and the Gammas were seventh and ninth respectively. To cap off a successful day out for PNBHS, Mr Anthony Ducre and Mr Matthew Sawyer also won the Teachers' Quiz.
Mathematics is essential for our wellbeing and living in a happy state of mind. In order to gain the most out of life, you need to know how to convert the negatives into positives. Congratulations to all six teams who participated in the Mathex competition, as well as the team of reserves who assisted in the lunchtime training sessions. Overall, this was a positive result for the school and shows the value in pursuing mathematical study. Another positive to remember is that Mathematics is fun. It teaches you life and death information, such as, when you’re cold, you should stand in a corner since it’s 90 degrees there.
PNBHS Mathex Team Alpha : Alex Sharpe (captain), Kexu Chen, Zi-yang Fan and Quinn Shearman.
PNBHS Mathex Team Delta : Tristan Taylor (captain), Kasra Mitchell-Koutabb, Josiah Lo, Anthony Yuan.
