The Mathematical

Crusade ’10
Junior Surprise Event

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

• You are not expected to solve every question.
• All questions are trivia questions. There are clues hidden in the text
pointing towards the answer. Indicate them along with your answer.
• The text is not factual.
• Bonus points will be awarded for finding all the clues that yield a
particular answer.
• Answers (vi) and (vii) are the Clueless clues in the Junior Surprise Event.
• Trophies will be awarded to the winners, 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up.
Furthermore, 80, 60 and 40 points will be awarded to them respectively
counting towards the overall tally.
• In case of a tie, the clues you have used to give your answers will be
checked. In case of further ties, certain questions will be given higher
priority.
• Ensure that your school name and school registration number is clearly
written and marked on every sheet you submit.
• 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 pieces
except the bishops. Bishops were his favourite. Every time he went to a friend's
house for dinner, he'd steal the bishops from their chess sets. He couldn't even
count the number of bishops he had stocked in his closet. Since he was a
mathematician, this was saying a lot. He knew this habit of his would land him
in 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 and
demanded 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-odd
different problems at the same time. He wanted to travel across the world to
escape 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 as
many 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 was
declared missing in the Bermuda triangle. (vi) mourned the loss greatly, for his
famous 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, he
recruited 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 I
look 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 Bermuda
to 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 information
about more dimensions than I deal in. Contact my friend (ix); you can find him
in the seas."

So (vi) plunged into the ocean, but due to a leak in his diving suit he found
himself 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 front
door 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 choose
to follow (xii)'s theory rather than (xi)'s."

(x) glared at him. "(xi) is perhaps the only one who can help you. He's a
magician of sorts; he can pull rabbits out of numbers!"
"All right," said (vi). "(xiii) would have been impressed to see that trick. Rabbits
were close to his heart. He always wished they would grow on trees."

They walked into a huge cavern, in one corner of which lay a small metal cube.
"This beauty can improve every program in the world by a factor of (xiv),"
bragged (x).

"Very nice," said (vi). "If you used it (ii) times on the same program, (xv) would
feel vindicated. This particular area always was his Achilles' heel."

Then (vi) realized something else. If that happened, both (vii) and his theory
could be tested. He didn't need to look for (iii) anymore.

Trapped in the fourth, fifth and sixth dimensions, (iii) groaned.