Math Stars
Lamar High School
Math Stars
By Kenneth Perkins
Math might be the only subject with an almost universally direct link to anxiety .
Not everyone is petrified of calculus , trigonometry or even the dreaded Algebra II , but there is something about its level of difficulty that has dictionary . com defining math as “ not easily or readily done ; requiring much labor , skill or planning . . .”
So imagine being on stage with math whizzes answering challenging questions .
That ’ s exactly what Lucas A . of Lamar High School and Nicholas E . of Martin High School did as competitors on the Mathematical Society ’ s “ Who Wants to Be a Mathematician ” contest .
Both students made the cut for this prestigious mathematical game held at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History . The students went toe-totoe with others answering multiple-choice questions .
“ Leading up to the event I didn ’ t even think I was going to do all that well because I could only answer a handful of the questions on the practice test ,” Lucas said . “ I was intimidated at first because all of my competitors appeared to be really confident . In fact , one of the competitors was a fifth grader who happened to be six grades ahead in math .”
Lucas was so nervous he got the first few questions wrong . He blamed it on imposter syndrome . Midway through , his scores began to rise and at one point he found himself in second place .
The question that put him there was about the history of math , to sort a group of mathematicians based on when they were born .
“ I didn ’ t recognize any of the names so I just used my world history knowledge to estimate when the mathematicians were born ,” Lucas said . “ The first mathematician had a Spanish-sounding name , so I assumed she came first because the Spanish Empire was one of the oldest empires and would have likely fostered a great mathematician before any of the others . The next two names sounded distinctly Eastern European and Russian , so I assumed they were born second and third because Russia peaked after Spain but before many other countries .”
The final name was Emmy , so Lucas assumed she was American or Western European and , therefore , born last . He said thanks to his quick , “ though probably flawed ,” thinking , he was the only one to get the question right . Lucas didn ’ t advance to the finals but described the experience as “ amazing .”
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