Tuesday 26 October 2010

Off to Shanxi, China

This is posted by LJ's mum.

Part of the team from the Singapore delegation to the China Western Mathematical Olympiad (CWMO) left this morning in the wee hours for Shanghai Pudong airport. Mr Thomas Teo accompanied the 7 students - Wei Liang, Wayne Lin, Zhan Xiong, Ding Yue, Ryan Kor, Joseph Kuan and Lim Jeck. Everyone gathered at about 11 pm. However, the flight information display system showed that there would be a 3-hr delay to the China Eastern Airlines flight, which was originally scheduled for 12.55 am. Later, there was another delay and eventually the group left at about 6.25 am. The picture is taken from Mr Teo's Facebook, and it shows the students catching 40 winks while waiting for their flight.

From Shanghai Pudong airport, they will be taking a coach to Shanghai Hongqiao airport to catch a flight to Taiyuan, where the CWMO competition is held.

Another teacher, Mr Derrick Wong, will accompany the 8th student, Zhang Aidi, and they are taking tomorrow morning's flight.

The Programme for the CWMO is as follows:
26 Oct (Tue) - Arrival
27 Oct (Wed) - Opening Ceremony
28 Oct (Thu) - Day 1 of Competition
29 Oct (Fri) - Day 2 of Competition
30 Oct (Sat) - Excusion
31 Oct (Sun) - Closing Ceremony & Departure
1 Nov (Mon) - Reach Changi Airport at 5 am.

On the day of his return, Lim Jeck will be taking his Chemistry exam at 2 pm. The next day, he has Physics in the morning. Both are "non-study" subjects so he should not have problem handling them without doing any revision during the trip. It is fortunate that he has been exempted from the Chinese & Biology papers on 29 Oct, and there is no need for any make-up (otherwise he may have to bring his Biology notes for the trip). There will be a make-up (date not known yet) for the English paper that he will miss.

This trip does not have much impact on Lim Jeck's schedule at NUS High - he will only miss 2 days of revision and 2 reading days since it is exam period. I think he will miss 2 lectures and 1 tutorial at NUS, where he is taking the Calculus module. I was more worried for him when he participated in the last two IMOs as there was a long stretch of absence (3-4 weeks) from school. Next year, the IMO will be held in the later part of July, which means that if Lim Jeck is selected for IMO again, he would probably miss more than 5 weeks of lessons. The intensive daily training (except Sunday) usually starts before the June holidays and ends on the day before the competition (about 2 months). I wish that the trainers would allow the students to attend class and only train them during weekends, so that there is less catch-up on lessons missed and tonnes of tutorials/assignments/projects not done, after the IMO competition. I think I am probably more stressed than Lim Jeck, whenever he has missed a long period of lessons. He, on the other hand, is quite cool and unperturbed by such things.

Friday 22 October 2010

Math Question on ABCDEF

Someone posted the following question on the cbox:

Find the 6-digit number ABCDEF such that 7 x ABCDEF = 6 x DEFABC where DEFABC is another 6-digit number. Different letters stand for different single-digit whole numbers.

Solution:
Let
___
ABC = x
___
DEF = y

7 * (1000x + y) = 6 * (1000y + x)
6994x = 5993y
538x = 461y
Clearly, x = 461 and y = 538
Hence the 6-digit number is 461538.

Trophies and Medals

Posted by Lim Li.
Someone asked if I kept my medals in an album. No, the medals were dumped somewhere in the display cabinet below. My NMOS medal is in the second picture below, centre row, with the bright red ribbon.


Saturday 16 October 2010

3rd Annual Mathlympics

This is posted by Lim Li

Hello, this morning I went to ACS(I) for the 3rd Annual Mathlympics prize presentation. We won 4 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze, as well as the 3rd runner-up team award.


From the picture, (left to right, top to bottom):
Wei Jue (gold), Tarun (bronze), Zheng Han (silver), Stephen aka Step (gold), me (gold) and Jarod (gold).

After that, we proceeded to Tiong Bahru Plaza's McDonalds. Mr Ng gave us a treat. He is very very super super rich and generous. Then, we saw his mother pass by. He said that his mother exercised everyday and looked very youthful though she is 60+.

Inside the MRT carriage on the way home , Step sat on the reserve seat and Mr Ng remarked "Are you pregnant?" Then, someone (cannot remember who) said that Step could sit on Mr Ng's lap.

Wednesday 13 October 2010

CWMO 2010

I will be going to China for the China Western Math Olympiad (CWMO) 2010, from 26 to 1 November. There are 2 teams, total 8 of us from the National Team. The CWMO 2010 will be held in Taiyuan, Shanxi of China.

As my year end exams are from 29 Oct to 2 Nov, I will not be able to take 3 papers - Chinese, Biology (29 Nov) and English (1 Nov morning). Not sure of the make-up for the missed papers ...

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Math Qn on Red and Blue Marbles

This is posted by LL ☺
Someone posted the following question on the cbox:

Container A contains 250 red marbles and 200 blue marbles. Container B contains 600 red marbles and 150 blue marbles.How many red and blue marbles must be moved from Container A to Container B such that 25% of the marbles in Container A are red and 75% of the marbles in Container B are red?

LL's solution:

before............after
A red 250.........1 unit(u)
..blue 200........3 units(u)

B red 600.........3 parts(p)
..blue 150........1 part(p)

4u+4p=1200 (total of red and blue marbles in containers A and B)
->1u+1p=300
3p+u=850 (total red marbles)
(3p+u)-(1u+1p)=850-300
2p=550, p=275
At first, container B has 150 blue balls.
Now, container B has 1 part=275 which is increased by 275-150=125 blue marbles
At first, container B has 600 red balls.
Now, container B has 3 parts=275x3=825 which is increased by 825-600=225 red marbles

Therefore, 225 red and 125 blue marbles must be moved from Container A to Container B.