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Rapid Match Competition Kicks off March Mathness at Parker!

Friday, March 2, marked the kickoff of March Mathness at the school for 2018! Senior Abhinav Goyal organized and ran a multi-round, rapid math competition that served as the opening event for this month-long celebration of mathematics at Parker. The competition was akin to the Uberbowl competition (run by Arete Labs) the US Math Club participated in earlier this year. During three highly contested rounds, students energetically tackled nine problems, including the two below:
  1. What digit is the most frequent between the numbers 1 and 1,000 (inclusive)?
  2. You have 10 cans of peas. The cans are open. In each can, there are 100 peas. In nine of the 10 cans, each pea weighs one gram. In the 10th can, each pea weighs only 0.9 grams. You do not know which can has the smaller peas, nor is it possible to tell with the naked eye. To help you, you have an electronic scale. However, the scale is not in great shape and can provide only one correct measurement before permanently malfunctioning. How can one, using only the one measurement afforded by the scale, determine beyond a shadow of a doubt which can it is that has the smaller peas?
Prizes were awarded to the top three teams and fun was had by all. This month will continue with more events, such as the Annual Pi Recitation Contest and the return of Professor Eugenia Cheng.
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Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a diverse democratic society and global community.