A Sixth Form team from QE fought off entrants from other top schools to win the international Ritangle Mathematics competition for the second consecutive year.
The eight-strong winning team from Year 12, called Pioneers, were the first of some 1,700 teams to submit the right answer to a series of three crossnumber puzzles. After meticulous checking by the judges in the competition run by education charity MEI (Mathematics, Education, Innovation), they were pronounced this year’s Ritangle Champions.
Furthermore, last year’s winning QE team, Flexangle, came second.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My hearty congratulations go to all who have done well and, in particular, to the Pioneers team. They demonstrated consistency throughout the various stages of competition, as well as speed and accuracy in the final round, in the process besting leading schools both from this country and abroad.”
Ritangle is open to pupils aged 16-18 studying for A-level Mathematics, or its equivalent. This year’s competition, launched on 25th September, attracted some 500 more entries than last year. It involved three stages.
For the first three weeks of Stage 1, one question was released every Wednesday. Every correct answer revealed a piece of information that helped solve the final task.
In part 2 of Stage 1, a question was released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, prior to the release of the final Stage 1 question. Again, every correct answer helped participants to solve the Final Task.
Stages 2 and 3 followed quickly upon each other, culminating in the final Stage 3 round of crossnumbers set by website Crossnumbers Quarterly.
Besides Flexangle, a further three QE teams reached the final shortlist, which comprised 16 teams from 12 schools who submitted completely correct solutions within 24 hours of the Pioneers team doing so.
The 12 included not only some familiar names, such as Haberdashers’ Boys’ School and King’s College London Mathematics School, but also Doha College (Qatar) and The English School, Nicosia (Cyprus).
It is also understood that all the QE teams were in the top 200. The 19 teams entered is itself thought to be a record from a single institution.
The prize for the overall winners included individual treats as well as a year-long subscription to the Integral mathematics support website and a trophy for the School. The prize was presented by John Brennan-Rhodes from MEI during Year 12 assembly.
The winning Pioneers team are:
- Aryan Kheterpal
- Samrath Sareen
- Sasen Kankanamge Don
- Hisham Khan
- Adithya Raghuraman
- Danyal Talha
- Eesa Malek
- Nayaenesh Jeyabalan
Runners-up (and last year’s winners) Flexangle, of Year 13, are:
- Anshul Nema
- Harik Sodhi
- Koustuv Bhowmick
- Joel Swedensky
- Shreyas Mone
The three other QE teams on the final shortlist are:
Los Desmos Hermanos (Year 12)
- Keshauv Sutharsaraj
- Rishik Siripurapu
- Rithul Shency
- Ayan Hirani
- Maitrayen Srikumar
Desi Derivatives (Year 13)
- Adyan Shahid
- Kovid Gothi
- Vijay Lehto
- Dinuk Dissanayake
- Panth Patel
- Rayan Nadeem
- Arka Gonchoudhuri
The Homeomorphs (Year 12)
- William Joanes
- Akhilesh Karthikeyan
- Pranav Challa
- Ram Chockalingam
- Yash Kedia