The MathematicalCrusade ’10

Junior Surprise Event

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There are 15 questions in total, each worth 10 points.

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You are not expected to solve every question.

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All questions are trivia questions. There are clues hidden in the textpointing towards the answer. Indicate them along with your answer.

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The text is not factual.

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Bonus points will be awarded for finding all the clues that yield aparticular answer.

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Answers (vi) and (vii) are the Clueless clues in the Junior Surprise Event.

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Trophies will be awarded to the winners, 1

runner-up and 2

runner-up.Furthermore, 80, 60 and 40 points will be awarded to them respectively counting towards the overall tally.

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In case of a tie, the clues you have used to give your answers will bechecked. In case of further ties, certain questions will be given higherpriority.

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Ensure that your school name and school registration number is clearly written and marked on every sheet you submit.

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If you have any further queries, do not hesitate to ask the student volunteer or the teacher in-charge in your classroom.

(i) was in his study playing chess against himself. He'd captured all the piecesexcept the bishops. Bishops were his favourite. Every time he went to a friend'shouse for dinner, he'd steal the bishops from their chess sets. He couldn't evencount the number of bishops he had stocked in his closet. Since he was amathematician, this was saying a lot. He knew this habit of his would land himin the madhouse, if not the gaol, but he couldn't help it.In his dreams, (ii) bishops tormented him. They all walked into his house anddemanded he find them a place to stay. He always declined with a heavy heart,but directed them to his friend (iii)'s inn across the street. (iii) would know exactly what to do.Unfortunately, that night, (iii) was quite busy. He was working on twenty-odddifferent problems at the same time. He wanted to travel across the world toescape all the distractions. To plot his itinerary, he needed a globe."I just have one globe," said (i). "I can't lend it to you.""No matter," said (iv) and (v). "Just smash it into (ii) pieces and you'll have asmany as you need.""That's crazy," said (i), but he did it anyway, and it worked.So (iii) set out to find a place he could work in peace. Three years later, he wasdeclared missing in the Bermuda triangle. (vi) mourned the loss greatly, for hisfamous conjecture now seemed doomed to remain unverified!?"I am convinced," he said to himself, "(iii) is out there in another dimension."Casting aside his work on integrals, he left in search of (iii).

A hundred years passed, and (vi) saw no end to his quest. Giving up hope, herecruited an army of billions to work on proving the theory. But when they placed his problem in the same category as (vii), he was disgusted. "What do Ilook like, friggin' Jane Austen!?" he shouted. "Crank your number-crunching engines till the end of time, you'll never solve it!" And he went back to Bermudato find (iii).Meanwhile, word of his search spread, and (viii) heard of it. He wrote to (vi),offering to help. "If you wish to know about triangles, I can help. Triangles,magic carpets or (ii). They're my specialty. But I believe you need informationabout more dimensions than I deal in. Contact my friend (ix); you can find himin the seas."So (vi) plunged into the ocean, but due to a leak in his diving suit he foundhimself sinking to the seabed, which was covered in tiles. There was a similarly tiled house some way off."I think I know who lives here," he thought, just as (x) emerged from the frontdoor and greeted him."I insist upon showing you my new computer," said (x). "I used it to reinvent(xi)!""I don't believe you.""As (xi) himself says, you have nothing to lose by believing me.""Time is short. I must find (iii). Anyway, if I were in a dilemma, I would chooseto follow (xii)'s theory rather than (xi)'s."(x) glared at him. "(xi) is perhaps the only one who can help you. He's amagician of sorts; he can pull rabbits out of numbers!"