Three winners in Math Mania writing contest

Thirteen-year-old Casey Fraser of Chesterfield had the most complete story in the November Math Mania writing competition. This was the first competition that went beyond numerical answers.

Instead of posing six or seven math questions, Math Mania creator Amy Ruzicka posed a problem in November that called for writing a 500-word story with a math theme.

The Challenge: "Write a scary story about the day mathematicians took over the world."

The answers that Casey and two other winners came up with weren't pretty. All the stories sounded quite a bit like "War of the Worlds."

But, in two of the stories, the non-mathematicians struck back and retook the world.In the other, the tyranny of the mathematicians continued.

The other two winning entries were from Anne Martin and Seamus Albritton of St. Louis.

All three of them will receive $10 Borders book certificates for their winning entries.

Here's a re-print of Casey Fraser's winning entry:

The Day the Earth Stood…On Its Feet

By Casey Fraser

In the year 2048, the world watched in disbelief. New York, Moscow, Berlin, Tokyo-all destroyed.

The best interpretation one could get of the situation came from the photos of smoldering husks of concrete and steel. Black towers of smoke extended into the sky, casting titanic shadows across the surrounding land.

As far as the world's governments could tell, a madman named Dr. Croix, the world's foremost mathematician, had cloned himself hundreds of times. He had created an army unlike any other ever conceived. It was an army of mathematical geniuses

Video began to stream into news hubs around the world. As more was shown to the eager people of the world, things became clearer. Home movies, satellite imagery and aerial reconnaissance provided even more footage.

One could see dark shapes--metallic in appearance-lumbering through the streets and wreckage. U.S. intelligence believed they were some form of tank. The Russian Alliance thought they were some form of mechanized walker, such as those employed in the Great Tundra War of 2034. Japan argued they were demons. Typical.

As higher quality evidence and eyewitness accounts streamed in, news broadcasters could confirm the Russian theory. The strange shapes were bulky, black walkers, brimming with firepower.

Their methods also were determined. Somehow, they would calculate the weakest point in a structure, hit it with a missile and repeat until entire blocks were leveled.

A threat like this never had been comprehended. A walker was meant to be a destroying machine, not precise like a surgeon's knife.

U.N. forces began mobilizing. Over six million soldiers from all over the world were dispatched to eliminate the threat. It was an awesome sight to behold.

Battalions of troops marching from military installations, tanks rolling down cleared highways and the U.S.'s own walkers lumbering towards the wrecked cities, armed to the teeth with the most advanced weapons in the world.

Reports soon arrived on the subject of the military advance. Minimal losses for the nations allied against the threat was fantastic news. Hundreds of these mathematical walkers were being dispatched every hour.

Operation Croix Reaper, as it had come to be named, was a complete success.

The walkers were being examined, the clones interrogated and cities were being rebuilt. No one knew if the real Dr. Croix was killed or not, but it was only a slight con in this victory full of pros.

The world was a bit safer that day. The full victory was achieved in only four hours.

The End---or is it?