Three winners in Math Mania writing
contest
The return to the number problems for the December Math
Mania brought a lot of entries. And a lot of winners:
14 to be exact.
You'll remember that in November, math teacher Amy Ruzicka
went away from number problems. She called for a 500-word
story with a math plot. This was the first time for a non-number
Math Mania contest.
Then, in December, Ms. Ruzicka went back to six problems
that could be answered with numbers, not words.
The number of entries increased. And, there were more kids
than ever who got all the six problems correct.
A total of 14 kids got all the problems correct. They were:
Martha Burke, 12, Clayton; Oscar Grandos-Martinez, 11, Clayton;
Lauren Hill, 12, St. Louis; Eric Hsu, 12, Chesterfield; Phillip
Hsu, 13, Chesterfield; Radhika Jain, 13, St. Louis; Beth Johnston,
12, St. Louis; Jackie Leong, 12, Clayton; Meghan McCann, 12,
St. Louis; Jenny McWeeney, 12, St. Louis; Claire Meyer, 14,
St. Louis; Katie Shirrell, 13, St. Louis; Joe Xi, 12, St.
Louis, and Rachel Wotawa, 13, St. Louis.
Under the Young Saint Louis.com contest rules, if
there are over three winners, we hold a drawing for the Borders
book certificates. The drawing winners of the $10 book certificates
are: Martha Burke, Radhika Jain and Joe Xi.
The December problems introduced some new terms such as "primorial"
and "twin primes." There was one answer that went into the
billions. One question had a number of correct answers.
There was even a problem that was made out as a poem. But,
many of the contestants handled all these unusual situations
with ease. Congratulations!
(For the January Math Mania, Ms. Ruzicka is shifting
to a new format. This time, she's asking for a 5-panel comic
strip with a math theme. To enter, click
here.)
Here are the answers for the December Math Mania problems:
1. A primorial is where you multiply a prime
number by all of the prime numbers less than itself. For example,
5 primorial, written 5# = 5 x 3 x 2 = 30. What is 29#?
Answer: 6,469,693,230. 29#
= 29 x 23 x 19 x 17 x 13 x 11 x 7 x 5 x 3 x 2
2. Fifty is the smallest number
that is the sum of two squares two different ways. For example,
and
What is the next number that
can be written as the sum of two squares two different ways?
Hint: It's less than 100.
Answer: 
and 
3. Three and five are twin primes,
a pair of primes that differ by 2. Find two more pairs of
twin primes less than 100.
Answer: This problem has many
possible solutions. They include such pairings as 11 & 13,
17 & 19, 41 & 43 and 59 & 61.
4. One way to write 27 as the
sum of 3 squares is 
.
Find another way to write it as the sum of 3 squares.
Answer: 
5. Replace x and y with different
values to make a true equation.
Answer: 
.
The famous Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (pronounced
Oiler) proved that 16 is the only number that can be written
in reverse notation.
6. There is a young lady of Lee,
Whose age has its last digit three.
If you total the two,
Which is easy to do,
One less than a square you will see.
How old is
the lady of Lee?
Answer: 53. 5+3 = 8, which
is one less than 9, a perfect square.
