Let’s see a show of hands. How many consider math to be a riveting spectator sport? It may come as a shock but there are televised math competitions and Jordan Ellenberg wonders if perhaps “mathletes” might some day feature in the Olympics. My favourite paragraph from his article:
Honesty compels me to confess that my high-school math team was called the “Hell’s Angles”; that we wore matching black T-shirts advertising this fact; and that we entered each match in file behind our captain, who carried on his shoulder a boombox playing “Hip To Be Square.”
Is there trash-talking in math competitions? How does it go? Would it involve cosines and differentials?
