Wishart Wins Senior School Mathex!
Wishart Wins Senior School Mathex!
November 12, 2018 at 3:47 PM
Question 1: ‘Mona and Allen went shopping for groceries. They spent half of what they had plus $2.00 at the butcher shop. At the dairy, they spent half of what was left, plus $5.00. At the bakery, they spent half of what was left. The remaining $5.00 was spent on coffee and cake. How much did they start with?’
Question 2: ‘Today Tony’s age is a cube number, at his next birthday his age will be a square number. How old is Tony now?’
Question 3: ‘An unusual die has six faces labelled 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, and 7. If two of these dice are rolled, and the numbers showing on the upper faces are added, what is the probability that the sum is equal to 10?’
Imagine having only seconds to answer these questions, under pressure, alongside others who are trying to work out the same answer - but faster than you! Hard right?
These were the nature of the questions our Year 7 and 8 boys faced at last week’s Senior School House Mathex competition! Small groups of boys worked hard to solve maths problems as fast as they could and when they thought they had the answer, their nominated runner sprinted to the adjudicators’ desk to check the result. If the answer was correct they were awarded five points and given another question, if the answer was wrong, they could opt to try again or pass on the question and forfeit those five points. Good strategy had a play!
The questions were tailored to each year level, but with the clock ticking down and pressure applied, suddenly the questions seemed harder to solve than in the classroom! For some this was easier than others!
Whilst the top mathematicians battled it out, the boys watching in support went wild as the four House groups, Cargill, Chalmers, Hamilton and Wishart went neck in neck, testing both their arithmetic power and aerobic stamina as the timer ticked down!
As the final buzzer went off, the points were tallied. Wishart won with 740 points, followed closely by Chalmers on 730, Hamilton on 700 points and Cargill finishing on 696.
