SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
According to the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the competition involves six problems taken in sets of three during 4.5 hour sessions (held across two days)—no calculators. Each team member attempts the problems, and team totals are based on the number of points each individual scores. The US earned 185 to take the gold while China earned runner-up honors with 181. It's the US' fifth victory overall. China has the most competition wins with 19 all-time, including winning four of the last five competitions heading into the 2015 edition.
Link to article with its image of a sample problem from the competition. It's rare to hear positive news about math education in the United States.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
US Wins Its First International Mathematical Olympiad in 21 Years
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 23 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 1) by TestablePredictions on Tuesday July 21 2015, @11:39PM
Not trying to be smart-aleck here, but in the spirit of the olympiad, I started wondering if there was a clever low-tech way to sort those pistons...
Lay two pistons on sides just far enough apart that ruler can lay across them. Line up a third piston onto the center of the ruler and allow to roll in the downhill direction. Repeat this pairwise diameter comparison as many times as necessary until the size order for pistons is known.
But maybe the ruler would sag in the middle enough so that using gravity as a differential amplifier doesn't actually work.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday July 22 2015, @12:21AM
It might also be possible to at least partially sort them by taking sets of three arranged [ a ........................................... bc ] and lay the ruler across; if b is taller than c the ruler won't touch c. (If a >> b the ruler would still touch c, but that would be obvious to the naked eye too. And we're assuming a ~= b ~= c.
One could use a hair or piece of paper to help determine if the ruler is resting on c or not. (Obviously only good for differntiating differences > the the width of a hair or sheet of paper.) But it should be enough to sort pistons that are only different by 100ths of an inch.
Eventually you'd identify one of the largest pistons, and repeat using that for a to refine it further.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday July 22 2015, @11:30AM
Speaking of the middle of the ruler, I think overbore pistons are heavier, so fulcrum the center of the ruler and do some balance games?