Chapter 181: Math Competition
The argument of the fans might look fierce, but it wasn’t toxic so Yun Xiangxiang ignored it.
She turned around to continue solving the math questions. The intra school competition was tomorrow, and she was still slightly nervous.
Her nerves were even worse than during the entrance exams. The entrance exam was just testing the acceptance rate, so the quality of the candidates varied a lot.
But the math competition this time only had all the top students in the school. Nobody would attempt it if they were bad in math. All the participants scored full marks in the entrance exam’s math, as well as being the high ranked top students in the math course.
She might be nervous, but it did not affect Yun Xiangxiang’s sleep. She woke up early and went to school.
“Xiangxiang, you’re finally back. I was worried about you,” Tao Manni pounced on Yun Xiangxiang and hugged her.
Yun Xiangxiang’s Weibo account hid her address. Naturally, they would not go and check Yun Xiangxiang’s IP address. They thought Yun Xiangxiang was still overseas. If she missed this competition, heaven knows how badly she would be criticized.
“I would never miss the events I promised to attend,” Yun Xiangxiang took out the breakfast and placed them on the table. “I got these for you girls.”
“We had our breakfast, but we still have some space in our bellies,” Feng Xiaolu who was passing by spoke with a grin.
They woke up early in the morning, worried that Yun Xiangxiang might not make it back. They could not starve themselves, but they didn’t really have the appetite.
It was Friday today. There were no classes in the first period in the morning. The math competition would start at 9:40, so Yun Xiangxiang did not need to attend the morning lecture.
“You said you were coming back on the first. We were waiting for you,” Tao Manni gazed at Yun Xiangxiang. “Let’s celebrate together tomorrow, okay?”
“Sure, I’ll treat you girls tomorrow,” Yun Xiangxiang promised.
“I’ll tell Tingting and Xiao Yuan in the group later. You want to ask Yang Qi out too?” Ma Linlin asked.
“Why not? I’ll call Xiangling and Mengmeng over. The more the merrier,” Song Meng was prattling about feasting on roast ducks when Yun Xiangxiang mentioned it yesterday.
Song Meng was obsessed with that restaurant’s roast duck. As it was a beautifully quiet place, Yun Xiangxiang promised to take her there. She sent the address to her dorm’s chat group, “We’ll be eating here. It’s a bit far. We will have to take the subway and switch to the bus before we can reach there.”
“It’s in the suburbs. Let’s ride on bicycles while we are there. Are there any karaoke bars there? Wanna go have some fun in the KTV after our meal?” Tao Manni asked after looking at the address.
“I’ll have to pass. I need to go home early. So many things I have to do,” Yun Xiangxiang immediately passed. She wanted to go there precisely because she did not want them to have too much fun.
The girls were dejected, but they knew Yun Xiangxiang was a busy girl. Feng Xiaolu harrumphed, “If we are not going to have fun, then we’ll have to eat as much as we can!”
“Of course, of course. Eat as much as you would like to,” Yun Xiangxiang felt no pressure about this. “There’s even mahjong and billiards to be played there… we will go there at noon. I’ll play with you girls for the afternoon.”
They would be by each other’s sides during the afternoon ride. Yun Xiangxiang was not worried about that. She, however, had to end the gathering early in the evening and ask Qianqian to send the girls home in another car. Yun Xiangxiang would not relax otherwise.
It just so happened that the car Lu Jin gave her was sent to China when she was still watching the fashion show. It arrived one day earlier than she did. She would have Song Qian and Ai Li each drive a car, and Song Meng and Li Xiangling would stay with her for the night.
Yun Xiangxiang gave the girls the souvenirs she brought back from Italy, including the ones who were from the dorm room next door.
The girls chatted and laughed for a while before Tao Manni and the others had to go to class. Yun Xiangxiang went to the examination hall. The dean, who was the invigilator, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Yun Xiangxiang. Having a student like her was both torture and a blessing.
At five minutes before the question sheets would be distributed, the dean held up a sealed bag, “There are only forty-four freshmen taking part in the math competition this time. Our questions are massively different from the past years. It not only tests your practical skills, it also tests you on your knowledge on math, as well as your understanding on history.”
The hall collectively groaned as the dean made that declaration.
They could still solve knowledge based problems, since they were related to the formulae. On the other hand, questions on the history of math would spell the end of them.
Yun Xiangxiang wasn’t sure whether she could answer them either. The history-themed questions might be math based, but if they were pitted against a top student in the history course, they might not win.
When they received the papers, there were three questions on math history in the multiple choice questions.
First question: Who is known as the grandmaster of modern math in China?
All four choices were Chinese mathematicians. Yun Xiangxiang knew nothing about this. She could only answer based on the ages of the mathematicians. Since the person was supposed to be a grandmaster, then he must be the oldest, most accomplished, and made the most contributions!
Second question: Who is the founder of the research for the mechanization of math in China?
Yun Xiangxiang knew the answer to this question. Song Mian mentioned it when he was explaining the field of mathematical mechanization.
It was a coincidence that the correct answer for this question also appeared in the choices of the first math history question.
It raised the probability of her getting the first question right by twenty-five percent.
Third question: Who found “Math Journal,” the first math magazine in China?
Once again, there were four choices. One of them also appeared in the first question. Yun Xiangxiang realized something. These questions were not just about history, they were also an indirect way of testing them on probability.
It was fortunate that she knew the answer to the second question. She might not be able to deduce the correct answer that way, but she was closer to the correct one. She would have an easier time of guessing if she knew some info on the other choices.
Following the ten multiple-choice questions were subjective questions. Similar to the multiple-choice questions, the subjective questions had two questions on math history.
First question: Who was the founder of geometric calculus in China?
Song Mian mentioned it when he was explaining geometric calculus to her. Yun Xiangxiang answered quickly and looked back at the ten answers in the multiple-choice questions.
This person was also within the ten non repeating choices.
Yun Xiangxiang swiftly searched for the second subjective history question: Who was the first self taught mathematician, and a legendary formula in China?
Yun Xiangxiang’s math lecturer mentioned this during the rare times when Yun Xiangxiang attended class. It could be said to be a bonus question.
Sure enough, the answer too appeared within the multiple-choice questions. It verified her guess that some questions were about knowledge outside of classes.
But as long as they listened and remembered what the lecturers said during the class, they did not need to do much reading to glean the correct answer. They just needed to find it through the process of elimination.
There was also a question of judgment which involved one of the ten answers above. Her judgment was correct, and she crossed off another choice from the multiple-choice question.
It depended on whether her classmates remembered these people or not, but Yun Xiangxiang felt that most of them would not memorize these.
Many mathematicians could use many formulae like they are extensions of their body, but they never knew from whom these formulae came from.
Yun Xiangxiang continued answering the paper. Most of it was still about practical skills. Her days of hard work paid off. Already there were a few questions that tested on things they did not learn yet.
Yun Xiangxiang barely kept her laughter in when she was doing the first question of problem solving.
It was a very classic math question used by international top institutions to test the applicants’ IQ.
Many people did not know how to solve it when it was first released.