Maths Quiz 2000 Competition Held on the Internet
December 18, 2000--Wolfram Research was a cosponsor of the first Maths Quiz
event held over the internet on Monday, December 4, 2000. Maths Quiz 2000
(MQ2000) was a 24-hour mathematics competition organized by the
Centre de Recerca
Matemàtica in Catalonia
as part of the World
Mathematical Year 2000 celebrations.
"If a plane sextic has no singularities except for nine cusps, how many double
tangents does it have?" With the help of their supporting teams and other
mathematical references, 378 participants from 65 different countries spent
24 hours trying to answer questions such as this and others from geometry,
number theory, algebra, and the history of mathematics.
The winners were announced on Wednesday, December 13, 2000, and received
prizes including Sun workstations and licensed copies of Mathematica 4.
In the final comments on the MQ2000 web site, competition participants wrote
in to report their enjoyment of the challenging event. Said one participant,
"If the purpose of the competition is to improve the mathematical community
bonds, you have succeeded in our institution. We have merged two teams in
one."
With the success of this first competition, it is widely hoped that
Maths Quiz will continue to be held as an annual event.
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