Mathcounts!

Yay!

Today was Chapter Mathcounts!

I was able to make it into the Countdown Round!

That means that I was one of the top ten people in our Chapter-thing!

Yay!

Actually, I came in tenth.   And I got out on two ridiculously simple questions.  Mostly because I was too slow.  Actually, I simply need practice.

Full possible score is 46 (that’s sprint plus target). 

In other mathcounts news, our school team will go to states!

Yay!

By the way, I (and now you) have just lost  The Game!

No, I have not told this joke, and I don’t plan on getting punched in the face.

You will want to read the alt text for the translation.

It will help to know either basic quantum mechanics or basic electron orbital theory.

Hard-to-Do Math

A collection of crazy questions. My friend (who lives in Hong Kong and taught me to curse in Cantonese–Cantonese sounds very different, as if the speaker is mad at you–anyway) had the idea of putting “Show all work” or “Show all workings [sic]” after a stupid question. I made up the rest.

1. Add 5 apples to 3 floor tiles. Justify your answer with a 5-paragraph essay.

2. What is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? Show all work.

3. Find x if y is 6. Explain your solution, and show all workings [sic].

4. Prove that 1+1=2. Use the two-column format.

5. What is the number of rabbits in one year from two rabbits? Why?

6. How many pencils do I have? How do you know?

Weird Proofs, Part 1

In case you haven’t heard about it, WordPress.com has added support for !

(I’ll explain what LaTeX is another day).

I will now use this feature to write two intuition-defying (okay, maybe not if you’re a mathematician) proofs.