Marist Mathemathics

Mathematics at St David’s Marist Inanda has been flourishing throughout the past weeks – from friendly competitions to challenges and Olympiads, the Marist boys have been demonstrating just how good they are at all things Maths!

185 boys wrote the first round of the South African Mathematics Olympiad (SAMO) on the 11^th of March. The Olympiad consists of tough papers designed to test mathematical thinking and to encourage problem solving. Candidates who score above 50% for the paper qualify to move onto the second round – 70 of our participants got through to the second round and we are very proud of those boys, as well as everyone who participated.

On the 15^th of March, the Academic Department organised and held the annual Pi Day reciting competition. The aim of the competition is to recite as many digits of pi as possible from memory. Pi (or π) is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that same circle. Commonly simplified to 3.14, pi is actually a never-ending number. However, mathematicians have long been fascinated by calculating the digits of pi and have now calculated it to 31.4 trillion decimal places. Annually, the March 14^th is celebrated as pi day – following the American date format, this day is 03-14, parallel to pi’s simplified form of 3.14. Seeing as the 14^th was a Sunday, this year’s Pi Day reciting competition happened on the 15^th – and it was extremely impressive! Daniel Dyer improved on his record of 298 from 2020 and recited a phenomenal 531 digits of pi, winning the competition. Steven Khoury came in second with 161 digits, and Yash Desai with 90.

A group of our Grade 5 boys were entered into a South African Mathematics Challenge organized by the South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF), in cooperation with the Association for Mathematics Education of South Africa (AMESA) and the South African Mathematical Society (SAMS). The Mathematics Challenge is focused on conceptual knowledge, the application of knowledge in new situations, problem solving, reasoning, communication, and general mathematical thinking. The aim of the Challenge is to help South Africans to become empowered independent creative and critical thinkers. The first round was completed in pairs, where our boys worked cooperatively to answer the question paper, consisting of 20 multiple choice questions. Those pairs who attain 50% and higher in the first round qualify for participation in the second round, which will take place on the 26^th of May where individuals will complete the challenge in order to qualify for the third and final round. We congratulate James Kerr, Alden Curtis, Michael Pieterse, Christian Gomes, Alec Psaros, Ricardo Torres, Rafael Mendes, and Dominic Teixeira on their participation in the first round.