SPS Mathematics Blog

On Tuesday 12th November, I set off across the river with the next iteration of the Hans Woyda team for our Round 2 match against Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. A dry forecast gave way to some light drizzle, but Siddharth (4th), Richard (6th), Adavya (L8th) and James (U8th) were insistent that they wanted the 40 minute walk up to Holland Park. Naturally this time could not be wasted, so I peppered them with a barrage of past paper questions on our journey. Fresh off the back of the first round of the House Maths competition the team were already warmed up for some competitive mathematics, but after the stimulating journey they were firing on all cylinders, and while I didn’t want to get ahead of myself I felt in my bones that we were in for an impressive performance. It was fairly even between the two sides, but Adavya’s familiarity with dodecahedra gave us a slight lead going into the geometry section. Unfortunately it was another dodecahedron that bested both Adavya and James this...

The maths society had the pleasure of welcoming one of our own, Mykhailo who presented a captivating talk on problem solving in mathematics. He began by telling us of his journey through mathematics, starting in Ukraine at the humble age of 7, where he agreed to compete in his first Olympiad in return for some Lego - a worthy reward. By the age of 11, however, he began to lose interest, until a remarkable geometry teacher reignited his passion. From that point on he was completely hooked on geometry, so much so that his Olympiad scores reflected his singular focus: 0/7, 0/7, 0/7, and finally, 7/7, as he excelled in geometry alone. He therefore decided that it would be best for his progress if he stopped doing geometry all together, focusing instead on the other 3 areas of math: Algebra, Arithmetic, and Number theory. He led us through a series of questions, seemingly impossible at the face of it, however, very manageable after explanation. Among the problems were a complex simult...

The Maths Society held a half-termly junior quiz for 4th and 5th form. It consisted of 15 tough, time pressured questions, with teams competing against the clock to answer as many as possible. The questions covered a wide range of topics, from algebra and geometry to problem-solving challenges, designed to test both knowledge and quick thinking. Teams were lively, and the atmosphere was filled with excitement as students collaborated, debated, and raced to submit answers. The quiz was organised by the 8th form Maths Society committee. Teams B and D were head to head for the majority of the challenge, but ultimately, team E came out on top, after blasting through a series of head-scratching questions towards the end, surpassing teams B and D with a commanding lead.  Here is one of the challenging questions of the quiz:

We had a strong team, buoyed by the leadership of the captain of school no less, but I couldn’t help feel my confidence waver when a small slip in one of the first four questions gave NHEHS the lead at the beginning of the match. However, a mistake on their part in the next four questions allowed us to claw back some marks, leaving both teams neck and neck at the end of the starter section. This pattern repeated itself exactly in the geometry section; some inscribed squares got the better of us in the first two questions which gave NHEHS a temporary lead, but some painted cubes got the better of NHEHS in the next two which brought us back to level pegging. At this stage I was concerned that we were in for another extremely close match, and I could already feel my heart rate starting to rise in anticipation of a nail-biting finish. Fortunately, my blood pressure was eased slightly by the mental arithmetic and probability section, where a stolen mark from the square root of a mixed fract...