The numbers game

By Cody Bozarth

This weekend, three Routt High School seniors will be trying to answer an impossible question.

Over the past several years students accepting the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge have struggled to answer real-world issues. Problems like salvaging national high-speed rail programs, drawing congressional districts fairly based on accurate population, or maintaining the integrity of Social Security program for years to come.

Thousands of students on more than 1,400 teams from around the nation will be taking the challenge this weekend. Routt’s team of three, Ryan Bickhaus, Hannah Howard and Wes Long, are about as ready as they can be.

The subject matter and problem they will have to solve are a mystery, and once announced they will have 14 hours to present a detailed analysis and conclusion, requiring both mathematical acumen and practical thinking.

“I’m nervous,” Howard said.

“I’m a little nervous too, I’ll admit,” Long added. “Its definitely something we have to do our best on, get our own value out of it.”

The three have been working together in class and spending some time looking over past problems and the winning answers to get an idea of what to expect. But without any indication of what the subject might be there’s very little they can do to prepare in terms of studying.

“With what it sounds like the problem is, it’s more mental preparation than practicing math,” Howard said. “It seems more of a philosophical question … more than functions and numbers.”

MacMurray professor and Routt calculus teacher Neil Hart brought the challenge to the class, assembled the team and will be functioning as the team’s coach.

Though as coach, Hart is not allowed to interact with the team as they work to prepare their answer. He said he was also excited to see how they do.

“This is the first time we tried it,” Hart said. “It’s impossible. … The answer is not going to be definitive, it’s just to see who gives the most outstanding answer.”

The team will be meeting Sunday morning and can only rely on each other and whatever publicly available articles and resources they find to submit their answer.

According to the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics — which organizes the challenge — answers are judged over three rounds by panels of doctorate-level applied mathematicians. The top six finalists will present their papers in the third judging round to determine final rank-order of those papers.

The top six finalists will be awarded scholarships ranging from $2,500 to $20,000. More than 50 teams will be chosen for semifinalist and honorable-mention awards of $1,500 and $1,000.