Contact: Maridith Geuder
A group of Mississippi State seniors recently proved its mathematical mettle in stiff competition with nearly 30 teams from more than 20 Southern colleges and universities.
The four-person university team finished first at the annual meeting of the Louisiana-Mississippi Section of the Mathematical Association of America. The MSU representatives edged their Tulane University counterparts by one point, 107-106.
MSU team members included Jonathan C. Boggess of Columbus, Seth A. Harbin of Athens, Ala., Greg Henry of Benicia, Calif., and Ben Wyser of Ocean Springs. Boggess is a philosophy major; Henry, a mathematics major; and Harbin and Wyser, both computer science and mathematics double-majors.
Team adviser Michael Pearson said the student challenge, which featured a $100 top prize, is something akin to the regional Olympics of algebra, calculus, probability, logic, and differential equations. The 2002 gathering took place at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La.
"During the two-hour competition, the teams have to solve as many problems as possible drawn from a variety of subjects typical of undergraduate mathematics programs," said Pearson, associate head of MSU's department of mathematics and statistics.
Pearson said the problems range from abstract to practical. Among this year's challenges, students were asked to determine the length of time it would take to flush a community water tank of specific dimensions if a prankster added a specified amount of salt.
Variables--like the rates at which pure water could be pumped into the tank and at which it drained--were provided, he explained.