Hans Woyda Northern Plate Final

A report by Mr Cullen-Hewitt

After months of fast-paced Mathematics and nail-biting finishes, our Hans Woyda journey drew to a close yesterday with the Northern Plate final against University College School.

The SPS team of Michael (Fourth Form), Aidan (Sixth Form), Haolin (Lower Eighth) and Gabriel (Upper Eighth) arrived at UCS in high spirits for their last match of the 2022-23 season. Having brought last year’s impressively hefty runners-up trophy to return to the organisers for the knockout final the following day, I had a good feeling we might be about to pick up something else to take its place in the Monty Room; however, this time I knew better than to take anything for granted.

The match got underway with a fairly tame set of starter questions, although the consistency of our Eighth Formers gave SPS an early lead. Next up, a challenging set of geometry questions nearly evaded both teams entirely, with Haolin and Gabriel bucking the trend by working together to provide the only correct answer of the section. Some strenuous mental arithmetic questions kept the points totals low but Haolin once again helped to widen the gap between the two teams by stealing a question from his opponent, and as such we had a 9-point lead going into the team section.

The team question concerned a curious collection of dice known as Grime dice, notable both for forming a non-transitive set and for their utterly misleading name – the Grime dice, as with all Platonic ideals, are spotlessly clean. Both teams impressed with their probability calculations, but St Paul’s came out on top, picking up the most answers and a bonus point to boot. Some mishandling of the calculator questions (Michael assures me he’s much more comfortable without one) allowed UCS to regain some ground, meaning they were still within striking distance going into the algebra and calculus section. A tricky set of sets questions led to even scores from both teams, with the two Upper Eighths stealing a point from each other.

Going into the race, we had a comfortable lead to help settle our nerves, but the last eight questions can hold plenty of surprises, so it was crucial that the boys didn’t let their guard down. However, I had nothing to fear, and after Michael set us off to a great start on the first question we went on to easily dominate the end of the competition. After the dust had settled, St Paul’s had sealed their victory over UCS with a final score of 43 – 28, and thus the Hans Woyda Mathematics Competition came to a close for another academic year.

I look forward to getting the ball rolling again in October, with the aim of making it the third year in a row we bring home some silverware! For the last time this year I have included one of the questions below, this time from the race section:

12           3)   Find the least number that must be added to the product of four consecutive positive odd numbers to obtain a perfect square.