The final group stage match of this year’s Hans Woyda Competition took place against The London Oratory School at home. The remaining squad members of Ryan (4th), Misha (6th), Lucas (L8th) and Adavya (U8th) helped me arrange my classroom into the battle chevron formation, after which a tube delay on our opponent’s side offered up plenty of time for some warm-up questions. Luckily, we were due for an early start regardless, and as such we were still making good time after The London Oratory had managed to overcome the challenges of the Piccadilly line. With both teams settled into their seats we prepared to start the match that would determine whether or not we make it through to the main knockout competition next term or end up competing for one of the plates instead.
We were off to a strong start on the starter questions, and although an order of magnitude slip and a challenging three-way HCF question prevented us from getting full marks, Ryan managed to best his opponent on both of his questions to give us an early 4 point lead. In characteristic fashion the geometry section, which concerned chopping up a variety of shapes and finding the total surface area of the resulting pieces, was fairly unsuccessful on both sides, but Ryan and Misha managed to get the only correct answer, aided in no small part by visualising their sphere sections as watermelon slices! We then came to the mental arithmetic and probability questions, all of which concerned the probability of drawing various selections of coloured socks from a mixed drawer. The first two questions had to be answered mentally without writing any working, but both Ryan and his opposite number showed themselves more than capable of going without. As the questions got more complicated pen and paper were once again allowed, and overall this proved to be a successful section on both sides, although both teams missed an opportunity to steal a bonus point. This brought us to the team question with a slim but promising lead, and after an astonishing set of optimally balanced scales we managed to extend that lead by a further 5 points to create a comfortable buffer for the latter half of the match.
After a break for refreshments, where the two teams enthusiastically tackled the sandwich and cake platters at the back of the classroom, they took their places once more for the calculator section. All of these questions concerned an imagined formula for a “sock loss index” – clearly the question setter this time had socks on the brain! – with lots of variables flying around and long worded questions to unpick. Unfortunately, Misha was the only one who spotted that individual socks and pairs of socks are two different quantities, and as such he was the only one on the SPS side to get out the right answer, allowing The London Oratory an opportunity to close the gap. They held firm in the algebra and calculus section as well, where six increasingly complicated questions on Vieta’s formulae gave way to two trigonometric integrals, and while Ryan and Lucas jointly prevented them from narrowing the gap any further, The London Oratory managed to keep themselves within striking distance for the race. Soon, however, we could rest easy, as Ryan and Lucas once again sailed through their last two questions to bring us clear just before the finish line. There was a tense moment on the last question where I spotted a mistake in the given answers which Adavya had managed to avoid, but sadly he had overcounted by one in the process, accidentally considering 0000 to be a four-digit number! However, our victory had already been sealed by that point, and with a final score of 42 – 25 we cemented our place in the main knockout competition next term, ready to defend the Hans Woyda Cup for another year.
I have copied one of the Vieta’s formulae problems
which evaded both teams at the time; could you spot the elegant way through the
algebra?
- Mr Cullen-Hewitt
