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Forty-nine Stuyvesant students took part in the math fair held at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn on Sunday, March 9.

Students from various high schools submitted math papers to the fair for consideration. All sophomores taking honors math and math research students at Stuyvesant were required to write math papers. “There are also students who submit papers that aren’t in math research or math honors classes,” math teacher Jim Cocoros said.

“Over 100 papers were submitted [from Stuyvesant],” Assistant Principal Math Maryann Ferrara said.

“There were 223 students who were accepted into the first round,” said sophomore Sarah Zhao, who attended the first round of the Math Fair. “Forty-nine papers were selected for round one [from Stuyvesant].”

The selected students presented their papers at the math fair. They were divided into rooms of about eight students and two judges.

Each student presented his project for a maximum of 10 minutes and was then asked questions by the judges. “The students in the room […] I was in, which had about four girls and two boys, presented a variety of topics,” Zhao said. Topics included diophantine equations, cryptography and polynomials.

“[Students’ papers] are mostly not original,” Ferrara said. “Most [students] just went in depth into certain topics.”

“I presented a project on the applications of the diophantine equations of Pythagorean Triples, using [American Mathematics Competition (AMC)] problems as the basis of my applications,” Zhao said. “[Diophantine equations] are equations made such that [...]all the results are integers.”

After everyone presented, the judges announced the names of the students who would move on to the next round. Twenty of the 49 students from Stuyvesant are advancing to the second round, which will be held on April 6. “The students did similarly to how they did last year,” Ferrara said.
“I presented an exploration of codes, specifically the World War II Enigma,” said sophomore David Rice, who will be returning for the second round.

Rice thought the math fair was a worthwhile experience. “[The math fair] was really good exposure to stuff out there,” Rice said.

Zhao, who will also be attending the second round of the Math Fair, agreed. “The math fair was different from what I anticipated. I expected frightening judges, a lot of tension, and that I would have no idea what to say,” she said. “However, once I presented, the judges were very nice and the atmosphere in the room of my presentation wasn’t condemning.”