ON T H E M E SA
PERFECTLY GOOD MATH
Perfectly matching mathematicians: (L to R) Nancy Wu '17, Alondra Torres-Navarro '16, Cecelia Sanborn '16, Jackie Cai '18, Jenny Lee '18, Ian Macfarlane '18, Keefer Rowan '18 and Sean Zhan '19 all competed in the Westmont College annual math contest this year.
On Saturday, January 30, Cate fielded two teams for Westmont College’s annual math contest. The theme of this year’s contest was “Perfect Numbers,” aptly named as this was the 28th year of the math challenge and 28 is a “perfect” number.” As a refresher, 28 is a perfect number because it is equal to the sum of its proper divisors (1+2+4+7+14=28). The two teams competed in the Upper School and Lower School competitions. Both teams started with a written contest, where Sudoku skills came in handy. They then answered questions read by a moderator in a college-bowl format (as in the popular movie Mean Girls). Cate’s Upper School team was composed of Alondra Torres-Navarro ’16, Cecelia Sanborn ’16, Nancy Wu ’17, and Keefer Rowan ’18. It faced 6
CAT E BULLET IN / S P R I N G 2016
three strong preliminary rounds of college bowl competition. However, even after overcoming some initial jitters associated with using a buzzer, the team couldn’t keep up with the experience and speed of Santa Barbara High School’s Varsity Math Club. Santa Barbara went on to win the Upper School finals. Jackie Cai ’18, Jenny Lee ’18, Ian MacFarlane ’18, and Sean Zhan ’19 composed Cate’s JV team – “Junior” indicating only the age of the team members. The JV team dominated the preliminary rounds, which included a sound squashing of the rival Toads. It then handily earned a spot in the finals. A tie for second place coming out of the prelims between Thacher and San Marcos led to a one-question sudden death situation, whose drama was heightened by a buzzer malfunction.
San Marcos eliminated Thacher and earned the privilege of facing Cate in the final round. Despite the team’s continued buzzer difficulties, Cate Math Department Chair Annalee Salcedo said, “The younger Cate Ewes and Rams kept their composure and worked as a team to solve non-routine problems in algebra, geometry, and probability with impressive speed and accuracy.” The team shut down the stunned San Marcos team, winning 8-0 and earning both the College Bowl and the School Award. The Westmont College High School Mathematics Contest was started in 1988 by a Westmont professor who wanted to give students the opportunity to compete and earn recognition for academics, not solely through athletic competition.