National Team Mathematics Challenge
For only the second year, Queen Ethelburga’s College entered a team into the National Team Mathematics Challenge, which is administered by the UKMT (United Kingdom Maths Trust). The UKMT was set up to encourage talented young mathematicians to express and develop their talents with the added stimulus of a competitive environment.
In November, the team, comprising of Stacy Cui, Moody Mu, Cassie Yang and Benny Zhao, travelled to Teesside High School in Yarm to compete against 20 other teams of Sixth Form students. The competition involved three rounds: problem-solving, a mathematical crossword involving numbers and a relay race, where problems are solved sequentially. All of these rounds had the added pressure of limited time. We competed strongly and knew, as the results were about to be announced, that we stood a fighter’s chance. With mounting excitement, we awaited the name of the regional champion. The announcement was made, the winner, Queen Ethelburga’s College. We were victorious and furthermore had qualified for the National Final.
Accordingly, on the 3rd of February, we travelled down to London to compete against the other 70 regional champions in the National Final. The venue was the Camden Centre, conveniently situated close to King’s Cross Station. The format of the final was unchanged, except that the questions were now harder and the competition much stronger. The team also had to research at very short notice an advanced mathematical topic, “Fractals – And Their Dimension” and on the day to make a poster on this topic answering some searching questions which were only posed on the day.
The team certainly raised their game and competed strongly, but perhaps we knew that victory, this time, would prove elusive when we were allocated table number 13. And so it proved – however we did finish, coincidentally, a highly creditable 13th, bearing in mind that the 70 finalists had battled through from the initial entry of about a thousand schools. This is testimony to the talent and enthusiasm that exists in the Mathematics classrooms at Queen Ethelburga’s. It is just as well that our team did not suffer from triakaidekaphobia.
Michael Pointon 101
Mathematics
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157