Proud Parents of David Wise, Jeannie Ritter, First Lady of Colorado, Sister of David Wise
2nd Prize Winner, David Wise (Sophomore from The Classical Academy)
With the XXVI Colorado Mathematical Olympiad, we have started the Quarter a Century! As the whole Colorado was bracing for a major snowstorm, I learned that the Olympiad is on only at 6 in the morning on the Olympiad’s day, April 17, 2009, when the Physical Plant Director Rob Doherty and Police Chief James Spice called me with the good news that the campus of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs will open on schedule. However, all Colorado Springs and many other schools of the state closed down their doors. This created a huge problem for the students who wanted to come and compete: they were provided no buses and no accompanying teachers. Of course, local Colorado Springs students had an advantage of being very close to our campus, and yet only a small number of them braved the weather. On the other hand, students from snowed in Monument and such faraway places as Boulder, Fort Collins, and even Rangely (the extreme North-Western corner of Colorado) made it to the Olympiad! We also had guest participants from the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, Mobile, Alabama, who earned their trip to our Olympiad by winning their local mathematics competition.
Participating schools included Doherty High School, Fairview High School, Fort Collins High School, Lewis-Palmer High School, Lewis-Palmer High School, Liberty Common School, Mesa Ridge High School, Murphy High School, Palmer High School, Poudre High School, Rangely High School, Sand Creek High School, Sproul Middle School, St. Mary’s High School, Summit Middle Charter School, and The Classical Academy.
The Olympians were offered five problems and four hours to solve them and present complete essay-type solutions.
As soon as students completed their work at 1 PM, Vice Chancellor Brian Burnett issued orders to close the campus down at 1:30 PM due to snow storm continuing to pile up white substance on streets and parking lots. However, Brian allowed the Olympiad judges to continue our work until 3 P M. And so we worked – until the job was done at 5 PM.
I thank the judges for choosing the front line of duty over fears of weather: Russel Shafer (1st prize winner of 1st Olympiad in 1984, who came from Wyoming), Robert Ewell (Program Committee Member), Ming Song, Matthew Ewell, Eric Conrad, Shane Holloway, Jerry Klemm, Bill Hodson, Brian Peterson, Chris Kemp, Matthew Rixman, Lee Overman, Dale Peterson, Steve Sibert, Bill Young, and Todd Tomlinson.
A most special thank you goes to Margie Teals-Davis, who bravely came from her snowed in home in the mountains to organize the students’ registration and placement, and many other aspects of the Olympiad.
The judges have awarded First prize to Allan Gardner, a sophomore from the math class of Doug James, St. Mary’s High School in Colorado Springs. This is the first in 26 years victory by a student from a private school. Allan will receive a gold medal of the Olympiad, a $1,500 scholarship to be used at any certified American university or four-year college, a $1,000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship for CMO Medalists, “The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators” – the new 2009 book by Alexander Soifer, a CASIO watch, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
Second prize will be awarded to David Wise, a sophomore from The Classical Academy, Colorado Springs. David will receive a silver medal of the Olympiad, a $500 scholarship to be used at any certified American university or four-year college, a $1,000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship for CMO Medalists, “The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators”, a CASIO watch, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
Third prize will be presented to Michael Morton, a senior from Rangely High School, Rangely, Colorado. He will receive a bronze medal of the Olympiad, a $500 scholarship to be used at any certified American university or four-year college, a $1,000 UCCS Chancellor's Scholarship for CMO Medalists, “The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators”, a CASIO watch, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
Fourth prizes will be presented to: Ben Alpert and Charles Xu, sophomores from Fairview High School in Boulder; Ryan Beethe, a junior from Poudre High School in Fort Collins; and Aaron Lear, a junior from Fort Collins High School in Fort Collins. They will each receive the book “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First Ten Years and Further Explorations” by Alexander Soifer, CASIO or Texas Instruments Graphing Calculator, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
First Honorable Mentions will be awarded to the following 11 contestants: Alex Black, a freshman, Chris Guthrie, a sophomore, and seniors Mutian Yao and Jeremy Young -- all from Fairview High School, Boulder; Margaret Koehler, a junior from Lewis-Palmer High School; Artem Bolshakov, an eighth grader from Liberty Common School, Fort Collins; Tian Tan, a senior, and Kevin Wu, a junior, both from Murphy High School in Mobile Alabama; Albert Soh, a seventh grader, Jesse Zhang, a sixth grader, both from Summit Middle Charter School, Boulder; and Shuli Song, a junior from The Classical Academy, Colorado Springs.
They will each receive the book “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First Ten Years and Further Explorations”, a CASIO scientific calculator, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
Second Honorable Mentions will be awarded to the following 10 contestants: freshmen Cissy Chen, Will Conway and Nicolas Ledru, all from Fairview High School; Joseph Mortensen, a senior from Fort Collins High School; Lin Zhong, a senior from Murphy High School; Mark Walth, a junior from Palmer High School; Justin Prosser, a sophomore from Rangely High School; Samantha Chavez, a freshman from Sand Creek High School; Rachel Philips, an eighth grader from Sproul Middle School; and James Gapinski, a sophomore from Mesa Ridge High School.
The Second Honorable Mention winners will receive the book “Colorado Mathematical Olympiad: The First Ten Years and Further Explorations, and the software “Mathematica for Students” v7 and Spiky Ball – both from Wolfram Research.
Those who wish to understand the spirit of the Olympiad are invited to solve some of the Olympiad’s five problems. Here, for example, is a problem about economic hardships of the present day, which students have solved:
Stimulus Package. These are hard economic times. And so, when 2009 University of Colorado alumni got together, they decided to help each other. A stimulus consists of each alumnus simultaneously retaining half of his money and spreading the other half equally among his 2008 fellow alumni. At the end of the stimulus all totals are rounded up to the nearest dollar, compliments of the University Credit Union. A series of stimuli terminates if further applications of stimuli no linger change the amounts of money held by alumni. Is there a set of initial funds of the 2009 alumni such that the series of stimuli never terminates?
And here is the problem that no one has solved:
Red Square. Is it possible to color red some of the unit squares of a 2009 x 2009 grid so that every unit square shares a side with exactly one red square?
THIS YEAR’S PRIZE FUND OF THE OLYMPIAD has been generously donated by Intermap Technologies, Inc., Wolfram Research, School Dist. 11, Air Academy Dist. 20, Fairview High School; Sand Creek High School; Harrison School Dist. 2; Chancellor, UCCS; Provost, UCCS; Vice Chancellor for Student Success, UCCS; Vice Chancellor for Administration & Finance, UCCS; College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, UCCS; City of Colorado Springs, UCCS Bookstore, and Alexander Soifer.
THE AWARD PRESENTATION PROGRAM will feature a lecture Mysteries of Two-Colored Planes, and Review of Solutions of the 26th Colorado Mathematical Olympiad Problems by Alexander Soifer.
The following guests of honor, hosts and sponsors will address the winners and present the awards: Jeannie Ritter, First Lady of the State of Colorado, Congressman Mike Merrifield, Pamela Shockley-Zalabak, Chancellor, and Thomas Christensen, Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences – both from UCCS; Greg Hoffman, Director of Human Recourses, Intermap Technologies Inc., Maggie Lopez, Assistant Superintendent, Colorado Springs School District 20; Mary Thurman, Deputy Superintendent, School District 11; and Alexander Soifer, Chair, Colorado Mathematical Olympiad.
In the 26 years of Colorado Mathematical Olympiad, over 16,500 students have participated during 1984-2009. They have written over 84,000 essays, and were awarded some $260,000 in prizes. The Olympiad is a unique joint effort of school districts, schools, institutions of higher education, business community and local and State governments.
For details please consult http://www.uccs.edu/~asoifer/olympiad.html .
Alexander Soifer
