My teacher for Math is Mr. Regele. Instead of covering traditional math topics such as Calculus, we do modular math. This involves using many different parts of math and problem solving to solve unconventional problems. Mr. Regele gives various questions from Exeter for us to solve, and each question has a general theme, some examples are vectors or circles. During class, we collaborate with each other and see how others approached the problems. Mr. Regele also calls on us in class to present how to solve some problems. Twice per term, we are given an “exchange of knowledge” of where he tests us on the current themes of math.
HiMCM is a 36 hour math modular competition of where students form groups of 4 to solve one math problem. The math problem doesn’t have a singular correct solution, so it is up to us to define what a solution to the problem could be. This year’s HiMCM was about the cost of public charging outlets and how it could be minimized. Our solution was to categorize different public utilities into airports, cafes, and malls. We then calculated the power usage by electronic and how many people visit each public utility a day. Through our calculations, we found that there is not a significant cost to running public charging stations, and in fact, due to economics, it is beneficial for public charging stations to exist. We have two days off of school to work on the problem (although we still have to go to school, there are no classes). The experience working with 3 others on the problem for an extended amount of time was fun, even if the problem we had was difficult at times.
A program that we use in math is Mathematica. It is a calculator that can calculate large data sets with commands. One problem that we were given was called Tupper High, where we had to determine the optimal price of a ticket for a school event. We were given the information of the highest price people were willing to pay along with how many people were willing to attend for each price. The graph of profit versus ticket price resembles a parabola, and the maximum profit would be at the vertex.