Numbers Count

 

Adam Coppard and Matthew Hoskin (pictured) along with Raymond Pau and Jessica Stosiek recently put to the test the dubious theory that mathematicians are solitary creatures compared to more disputatious academics like physicists, historians and economists.

 

At a mathematics boot camp in South Devon run by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust they joined fifty other young mathematicians from across the South West.  Everyone there soon learned the lesson of Bletchley Park, that the collaboration of strangers is the surest route to success - as well as being very good fun, as Jessica is finding out, see picture below!

 

Our four Sixth Formers will be competing in the UK Senior Mathematics Challenge next month and this was a chance to find out if they were hard enough. They were - and their experience will surely stand them in good stead when they take on the rest of the country.