If you don't know what the Mathathon is, its a contest I started on Brilliant.org, where I post Math and Logic problems of varying difficulty, and score the solution that the participants create. Highest score wins. You can check my Profile for my posts on the Mathathon 2020.

So, the last Mathathon was held in the second half of 2020, somewhere around July-August I reckon, but this time, I'm gonna hold it in the March-April period because I will be very busy after then (Busy studying, surely not playing games).

I have changed up some things, and this Mathathon will be better planned than the last one.

$\large \text{MATHATHON 2021}$

The Mathathon 2020 was a contest where I post a series of problems and score the solutions. The Mathathon 2021 is the same, except we have different rules.

I shall add the number of problems and the posting scheldule below later (coz its a draft), and you can solve them at anytime you want.

(I dunno what to do now, I am really bad at this hosting thing...)

Your solution will be graded as follows -

Accuracy - $10$ points

Readability - $10$ points

Ingenuity - $10$ points

Bringing us to a total of $30$ points. (Bonus points if you say you love the Dream SMP!)

(I was kidding, if you didn't get it...)

(Now, the last time I had included time zones and Latex and all that sh*t, and in retrospect, that was a very stupid idea, so this time, I will try to be a more...um...a person with more IQ, coz I'm big-brained, yeah...)

Accuracy is basically correctness. Whether every calculation, assumption, or the final answer is correct.

Readability is neatness and clarity. Your solution must be clear and easily understandable, organized, not a clutter of numbers if you want to score here. Latex, images and GIF's are all included in this part. Unnecessary images, Latex or GIF's will not be awarded more points.

Ingenuity is your method of solving the problem. For this, my friends and I (Yes, I have friends...) will each make a solution for the problem. The most used solution will be counted as the most common solution, so if your solution sways away from the common solution, you score here. Your solution should make people go 'Aha!' or 'Clever trick!' to score here.

My friends are all smart, and I've told them about this, so they're not messing around and are taking this seriously. No bias will be allowed in this contest.

(I'm an anti-social person, so I've got $5$ friends, don't judge.)

Problem schedule :

Problems $1, 2, 3$ and $4$ will be released on $22nd$ March and will be of easy difficulty.

Problems $5, 6, 7$ and $8$ will be released on $24th$ March and will be of medium difficulty.

Problems $9$ and $10$ will be released on $26th$ March and will be of hard difficulty.

All solutions posted on or before April $1st$ will be considered. I will send out the results on April $2nd$ .

If you haven any queries or issues, please comment here

If you would like to view the list of participants and their points, go here

If you want the links of the problems and discussions related to the Mathathon, go here

Announcements -

25 members have joined, no more members may join. If someone drops out, members in order of time priority may join.

There is a new judge, Jason Gomez! He will help me with the scoring. He is not participating. No more judges will be allowed now!

Easy Math Editor

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Anyone can join. I will allow the first $25$ members that join to participate, no more because I am not Simon Cowell. If you wish to join, reply to this comment saying you want to join. Please follow discipline and comment as a reply, because if I don't see your comment in the replies, I won't add you, even if you commented elsewhere on my note. Your comment format should be as follows -

I want to join.

No, I'm kidding just type whatever you want...

A Former Brilliant Member - 3 months, 1 week ago

I want to join

Jason Gomez - 3 months, 1 week ago

bruh lol ok I'll add you once I complete this :)

Newton KAYODE - 3 months, 1 week ago

Okay, I will add you once I complete this.

Comments Subscribe Sort by:TopNewest 1 0 Anyone can join. I will allow the first 2525 members that join to participate, no more because I am not Simon Cowell. If you wish to join, reply to this comment saying you want to join. Please follow discipline and comment as a reply, because if I don't see your comment in the replies, I won't add you, even if you commented elsewhere on my note. Your comment format should be as follows -

Percy Jackson - 1 day, 17 hours ago Hide 2 Replies Reply I want to join No, I'm kidding just type whatever you want...

Jason Gomez - 1 day, 7 hours ago Hide 1 Reply Reply bruh lol ok I'll add you once I complete this :)

Percy Jackson - 1 day, 7 hours ago Hide 1 Reply Reply @Percy Jackson – Thanks :)

Jason Gomez - 21 hours ago Hide 1 Reply Reply @Jason Gomez – @Percy Jackson, will I participate ?

Newton KAYODE - 21 hours ago Hide 1 Reply Reply @Newton Kayode – Mostly you will, percy will tell you once he comes online

Jason Gomez - 21 hours ago Reply I want to join.

Newton KAYODE - 21 hours ago Hide 1 Reply Reply Okay, I will add you once I complete this.

Percy Jackson - 3 hours ago Reply

Write a comment or ask a question...

i want to join

NSCS 747 - 3 months, 1 week ago

What the hell dude...I'll add you once this is done...

Mwah hah hah!

Jeff Giff - 3 months, 1 week ago

u have discord? ill delete this once u reply

Yes, why?

@A Former Brilliant Member – friend me my user is: NSCS_737#2887

@Nscs 747 – Can't because of this

@A Former Brilliant Member – so your telling me you have 1000 friend requests or friends? there is a useful invention called ignore all and unfriend lol

@Nscs 747 – I will not unfriend all my actual friends just to add you. I'll check for useless old friends and stuff. Its mostly because of the repl.it discord, most of them are my friends lol

@A Former Brilliant Member – im not saying unfriend everyone.. just unfriend one person that hasnt been on for like a yaer or something

@Nscs 747 – I'll try but looking for one friend that's offline in a 1000 is like searching for a needle in a 1000 haystacks.

@A Former Brilliant Member – goto freindslist and scroll al the way to bottom and unfreind person at very bottom

Avner Lim - 3 months, 1 week ago

I will add you when this is done!

@A Former Brilliant Member – Thanks!

Aditya Mittal - 3 months ago

Will add you once its done :)

A Former Brilliant Member - 3 months ago

George not found is underrated

Aryan Raj - 3 months ago

Haha, he is. You're in the contest!

Siddharth Chakravarty - 3 months ago

You didn’t spam...

Jason Gomez - 3 months ago

@Jason Gomez – So, did I spam?

@Siddharth Chakravarty – Ofc you didn’t even I said the same

@Jason Gomez – Haha, I see what you did just now, tit for tat :)

@Siddharth Chakravarty – Lol, I imagine Percy Jackson being extremely confused reading this

@Jason Gomez – visible confusion

Sundar R - 3 months ago

This seems interesting, I want to join

Devbrat Dandotiya - 3 months ago

Or do I? (yes I actually do that was a joke).

Kevin Long - 3 months ago

I am willing to join

Omek K - 3 months ago

But I am not good with writing solutions in the website can I send it your email

WHATEVER YOU WANT

Anyways i am interested... Nice initiative

Siddhesh Umarjee - 3 months ago

Praveen B - 3 months ago

Hamana Hamana - 3 months ago

Admissions are closed, unless someone drops out no more will be allowed

yera kim - 3 months ago

Unfortunately all 25 places have been taken, if a participant doesn’t intend to participate later, I will notify you :)

thank you very much to the MATHATHON 2021 team for their effort.
i enjoy the Mathathon problems very much.

num IC - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

Thanks @num IC ! We're glad you enjoy the problems so much!

A Former Brilliant Member - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

please? I'm 14 and kind of smart

Daniel Moore - 3 months ago

you still can solve the questions but keep the explanations until someone drops out or the mathathon is over.

num IC - 3 months ago

I will let you know if you can join (some participants are not really active, and might want to drop out later)

@Daniel Moore You are in! Please respond to this message to confirm your participation (and also anybody else who thinks this formal tone is cringe)

Jason Gomez - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

@Jason Gomez – 'Formal tone' Cringe

'Informal tone' Pog

'I'mma say whatever I want tone' POGCHAMP!

lmao

@Jason Gomez – Reply

Daniel Moore - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

@Daniel Moore – @Percy Jackson Yup he’s in

@Jason Gomez – Okay, I'll add the kinda smart fella.

@Daniel Moore – Informal- You can try out the Mathathon questions and give solutions to them now

Formal-Do try out the Mathathon questions and if possible give solutions too

Hey!! By when should we be expecting the judging🙄

Siddhesh Umarjee - 2 months, 1 week ago

Ig they are testing our patience as well

Agent T - 2 months, 1 week ago

Kevin Long - 2 months, 1 week ago

hmmmmmm XD

Is dream so popular now? Oh god... I love minecraft!

Dream and the Dream SMP. They literally dominated 2020, and the Dream SMP is coming to its final stages, with Dream proving that he has a revival book.

Oh I simply know about manhunt... not interested in the Dream SMP. Users are mad about manhunt in China but see, China has its own free minecraft (after negotiating with bruh) so you’ll know nothing about that :)

@Jeff Giff – Oh, ok lol the manhunt series is great but the Dream SMP series is absolutely the best work of fiction ever known. It is literally an in-game movie. You should see a few summaries on the series and a few animatics as well!

@A Former Brilliant Member – Yeah, like... NO! NOT THE PRIME LOG! *TNT explodes *

@Jeff Giff – lol I'd suggest animativs by SAD-ist and summaries by EvanMCGaming

@A Former Brilliant Member – And then we have *dream blew up * WAIT! This isn’t in the script!!

@yera kim - You are in the contest!!!

This might take a month to prepare :) I’m in!

Sure, you'll be in once I finish this.

@Jeff Giff, @NSCS 747 - Can you please delete your unnecessary comments, I would like this note clean so that I don't have to search through too many messages :)

can i also help with your judging stuff

NSCS 747 - 3 months ago

Uh...I said only 2 judges, I'm not sure having 3 judges will be very convenient.

A Former Brilliant Member - 2 months, 4 weeks ago

@A Former Brilliant Member – i can keep track of like who submitted a response and stuff like a roll marking for each question i guess?

NSCS 747 - 2 months, 4 weeks ago

@Nscs 747 – Ok, if you want to :)

@A Former Brilliant Member – k what is the list of members

NSCS 747 - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

@Nscs 747 – It is given in the Members and Points note. The link is up in the official note.

@Newton KAYODE, @Avner Lim, @Jason Gomez, @Aditya Mittal, @NSCS 747, @Jeff Giff - The note is complete.

@num IC , @Reyna (Sarah Alam), @Pixel-girl - Wanna join???

Want to call David Vreken, Siddarth and Vinayak? They might want to join

Yeah, I'll mention them too. I'm posting this link in today's dc (BM allowed me to)

@A Former Brilliant Member – Oh nice

@A Former Brilliant Member – I’ll put in my solution too if I put one up

@Jason Gomez – Ok, thanks :)

Is sir Zakir Husain in as well?

Jeff Giff - 3 months ago

I will mention some more people later. Zakir Husain will be mentioned.

Yes! I’d love to participate, thanks for mentioning me!

Sarah Alam - 3 months ago

Great!!! I'll add you to the members list!

I’d love to participate

@Zakir Husain, @Siddharth Chakravarty, @Vinayak Srivastava, @David Vreken - Would you like to participate?

Sure

Zakir Husain - 3 months ago

Great, I'll add you!

OK, but my offline school class will start from April, so maybe I won't be much active but I'll try.

Vinayak Srivastava - 3 months ago

Oh, it will end till 1st April. I did not read it completely. Count me in!

I will be too busy then and will have to decline, but I appreciate the invite!

David Vreken - 3 months ago

Okay :)

Count me in!!

Atin Gupta - 3 months ago

Sure, I'll add you!

Thanks :)

I was just wondering whether BM will want to join, they just shouldn’t put staff solutions up in your problems, nor delete other solutions to win that’s all... and not cheat to get the answer right, okay yeah they have too much power

What if BM is an account used by multiple staff members?

And why are you assuming Brilliant Mathematics is a ‘he’?

I didn’t assume the account is owned by a he

when the gender of a person is not known, or you don't want to mention the gender, the pronoun used shall be 'they'.

@Siddharth Chakravarty – That’s what I put...

@Jason Gomez – Let call Brilliant Mathematics IT, so we aren’t talking about a thing or object, but a Brilliant Mathematics. We aren’t sure whether IT is a he or she or they, so we call IT, ‘IT’. e.g. IT will make a solution. IT has too much power. IT will delete the comment. e.t.c

This is for @Sarah Alam, i edited the comment

@Brilliant Mathematics - Wanna join? (don't cheat tho)

I have to pass.

Brilliant Mathematics Staff - 3 months ago

@Brilliant Mathematics – Ok, there's 25 already anyways :)

There, all your questions will be answered, I mentioned BM.

Aargh you beat me to it :D

Vishwajeet Prasad - 3 months ago

Put this as a reply to the top comment instead and delete this comment

I am willing to participate

But I am not that good with writing solutions in the website but can I send it to your email, if possible then I am willing to participate

I am pretty sure this would go against the spirit of the competition (everyone needs to see your solution, so that they can agree Percy isn’t biased) and also I am very sure he wont be willing to share his email id with you because we are on an online platform

@Jason Gomez – Ok but still I will participate and I will try using latex, you can include my name

@Omek K – Surely

@Jason Gomez – Thank you

@Omek K – @Omek K - This is in my opinion the best Latex guide on the platform. You can check for latex codes there and use them. If you have any questions about Latex, you can ask me :)

@A Former Brilliant Member – Thank you

I would like to join.

Morris Pearl - 3 months ago

Hi Percy! This sounds challenging and fun. I am interested in participating if I can still join. LaDonna Carrington

LaDonna Carrington - 3 months ago

On second thought, it is best that I do not enter, I am going to be very busy the net few months. Thankyou.

I want to join if still possible. Thanks

Guillaume MARTIN - 3 months ago

I would love to join if it is possible Thanks !

Balthazar Martin - 3 months ago

Hi Percy I appoligize if my english sounds weird. It's my fourth language. I am kind of new here, but i'm genuanlly delighted, that you and your friends sacifice your free time to organize this Mathoton. Since only 25 People can participate, i would be very thankful if you and your friends could post the Problems after the Mathoton has taken place. Thank you for considering my suggestion.

Best reagards. -lekonda

Lekonda Sagon - 3 months ago

All problems posted can be solved by everyone, it will all be in Percy's homepage, but only those who are in Mathathon can submit solutions to be graded, you can attempt all the problems if you want, but it would be preferable if you put down your solution after 2nd April (25 solutions is itself a huge number to grade, extra solutions coming in might just increase the time spent in searching for the solutions to be graded) , and by the way your English is better than mine :)

All 25 participant spots have been occupied! No more applications will be accepted now. All the 25 names have been listed in the members and points note!

How to write in such a big font?

Use hashtag # in the beginning

@Jason Gomez –

Thanks

@Atin Gupta –

huh

@Kevin Long –

ok

enf hue

so it works with spaces ok

and if # you put another

@Kevin Long – it does nothing

If you put double or triple or other kinds of combinations involving # (also you can put hashtags in the end) you can type the other type of headings

test

test4

test2

@Kevin Long – test###

Where can you find the problems when you post them?

You can find them in Percy’s homepage and my homepage (practice problems only from mine) and all links will be mentioned in the Mathathon links note which is also in Percys homepage

This is Mathathon Links

@Jason Gomez – thxs

NO!!!! I'm so sad!! I really wanted to participate, I even put your draft in my favorites (when you asked the permission of staff to publish about it some 2 weeks ago), but there was no note back then that there would be a maximum of participant... Well, maybe next year! ;) Keep up the good work and I hope we will be able to at least see the different problems of this year even if we don't participate! Wish you the best, really a great project! :D

Julie Éthier - 3 months ago

Thanks! I won't be making this next year. I'll be too busy. I'll ping you if a participant goes out so that you can join :)

@Julie Love-Brilliant - A member has dropped out because of some reasons. You're in!!!

@A Former Brilliant Member – Percy Jackson you really are the best! Well I already knew that, but now you know that I knew! ;)

@Julie Éthier – congrats! you took the spot i opened i hope you do well i pulled out cus i dont really have much time on brilliant to do this challenge

@Julie Éthier – lol thanks :)

how can you write a sentence and put it into a numerator with the spaces

$\dfrac{\text{numerator sentence}}{\text{denominator sentence}}$ -> Copy this code and use it :)

then how did you write it out isn't then going to be (\dfrac{\text{numerator sentence}}{\text{denominator sentence}})

@Kevin Long – oh wait comments have no latex

@Kevin Long – Comments do have latex. I used a trick to remove formatting :)

@Kevin Long – That code displays this - $\dfrac{\text{numerator sentence}}{\text{denominator sentence}}$

I used a secret trick to remove the latex formatting :)

@A Former Brilliant Member – what's the trick and how do I find my id number cause there's a page with it

@Kevin Long – no, its way more complicated.

@A Former Brilliant Member – ok

@A Former Brilliant Member – yay I did it my solutions now done

@A Former Brilliant Member – how do you make the font smaller though

@Kevin Long – add a \small before the \text{}

@A Former Brilliant Member – then is there a \large

@Kevin Long – yes, it makes large text. There is \Large, \LARGE, \huge and \Huge also

what is the difference between \frac and \dfrac?

@Atin Gupta – \dfrac is just a short way of writing \displaystyle\frac which makes the styling a bit better for the fraction

$\frac{1}{2}$ This is \frac

$\dfrac{1}{2}$ This is \dfrac

@A Former Brilliant Member – Okay :)

I want to join it too!

soheil gh - 2 months, 4 weeks ago

There are currently 25 participants and 2-3 people in the waiting list. Low chance that so many people will drop out, but if they do, I'll ping you :)

@Percy Jackson When will the last two problems be posted?

Aditya Mittal - 2 months, 3 weeks ago

In some time I will post.

@Percy Jackson, I think this type of contest would have been better lol

Vinayak Srivastava - 2 months, 2 weeks ago

lol I didn't know this existed, thanks for sharing, it is hilarious :P

A Former Brilliant Member - 2 months, 2 weeks ago

Hey Percy, I really appreciate that you're taking the time to make this possible and would very much like to join in. Best, Oskar

Oskar Dobroczek - 3 months ago

Thanks! I have added you to the contest!!!

Great, thx!

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$