Neurobics

Competitions

Russell Dear

Each year the Canterbury Mathematical Association sponsors a competition for senior school students in New Zealand. Theirs is the longest running competition of its kind in the country and since it was inaugurated in 1967 many of those who were to become our greatest mathematicians have taken part.

There are two other national competitions providing stimulus for aspiring mathematicians. The Australian Mathematics Competition is the largest. It was first held in Australia in 1978 and extended to the South Pacific in 1980. Now well over a quarter of a million youngsters take part every year. The most recent home-grown competition is sponsored by the National Bank and organised by the mathematics department of Otago University. One of the stated aims of all these competitions is to raise the standard and standing of mathematics, a subject about which there are plenty of negative feelings.

In addition to the three national competitions there are a host of regional ones. With names like SMAC Maths (Southland), Cantamaths (Canterbury), Mathswell (Wellington), and Casio Mathex (Auckland), they aim to encourage endeavour in the subject via posters, designs, model construction, and team competitions. They are very popular, attracting thousands of competitors every year.

Many of the problems set in the competitions are purely mathematical and of less general interest. However, a few have wider appeal. One taken from this year's preliminary paper of the Canterbury competition was in the form of a simplified alphametic:

A8A4A is a five digit number divisible by 4 and 9, find the value of A.

Alphametic is the name given by J.A.H. Hunter in 1955 to the type of puzzle in which numerical digits in a arithmetical calculation are replaced by letters of the alphabet (Hunter was the author of a syndicated puzzle column read throughout the US and Canada). The classic alphametic, devised before Hunter had given the name to the puzzle, is SEND + MORE = MONEY. Each different letter stands for a unique digit and the arithmetic holds true.

Another of Hunter's alphametics is (CAREER) = RUT, and one of mine, MUNCH + LUNCH = SLOWLY.

See if you can solve the four alphametics mentioned above.

Answers will be supplied next month.