The Australian Mathematics Trust Awards Presentation was held on 7 November at The King’s School. A highly selective group of students from all over NSW attended the ceremony including boys from Newington College

Newington had three award winners: James Rosse (8/PR) – Prudence Award for greatest number of consecutively correct answers, Stephen Chan (9/JN) and Eryuan Sheng (9/ME) – Prize Award. This photo is of Mr Phil O’Rourke and Stephen Chan. His prize, as does Eryuan’s, places him in the top 0.3 per cent of entrants. When you consider the elite nature of the entrants, this is very impressive.

The speakers at the ceremony presented themes varying from the role of Mathematics as an essential tool in the pursuit of excellence, to an examination of the sophisticated mathematical themes presented in The Simpsons.

For example, students were encouraged to check the following calculation (presented in the background in one episode of The Simpsons) on their calculators and to reflect on the World famous Fermat’s Theorem:

3987¹² + 4365¹² = 4472¹²

Mr Phil O’Rourke
Mathematics Department