#math competitions

[the-math-one]

A few thoughts on competition math

Not sure how many people do competition math here, but I personally have done quite a few olympiads and such (particularly the American ones - AMC, AIME, USAMO, MOP, etc). It seems some people like doing them, and other people think they're completely useless to everything.

I mean, it is true that they're mostly useless to research or anything applied - you might learn a few things, but if you're trying to optimize for a career, they're probably not your best shot. However, I do think that they're worth doing (if you want to do them, of course)

First, the amount of thinking you have to do for, say, the USAMO I've found is very helpful for problem-solving in general (not even just for math problems). Especially since AI recently was able to do all the algebra, geometry, and number theory problems on the IMO (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-reaches-silver-medal-level-at-this-years-math-olympiad/), it's probably more and more important that you need to know how to solve problems that require new ideas. It's no coincidence that the two problems the AI wasn't able to solve were both combinatorics - the type of problem without a set "canon" and the one that requires the most novel ideas in-contest that aren't similar to anything seen before.

Also, math competitions just let you meet a lot of new people who will go far in life and change your view on the world. Po-Shen Loh, for example, is an awesome one who's encouraging people to focus more on problem-solving, and encouraging the use of, say, comedy to make math education more interesting (I'll do a whole separate post on him someday).

I think the reason math competitions are getting so much hate recently is because they're the "next big thing" for getting into [college of choice]. I think if you're doing something just to get into college, you shouldn't do it. But that's no excuse for people to make fun of others for doing something that's fun (not that I've seen it here, but I have seen it in some of the math research circles). Evan Chen's blog is great at explaining this phenomenon of everyone gravitating to an interesting thing and turning it into a college grind (https://blog.evanchen.cc/2024/04/05/grief/).

Also, I've found that math competitions put a lot of pressure on you, especially when your parents are the one making you do them. Nobody can work on math for every waking hour, for a long period of time (or if you do, then that's probably not healthy). I'm a little tired myself, which is why I'm taking a break. I think one major appeal of math competitions is that you can do math without any real deadlines or any real pressure: the pressure is just your own pressure on yourself to work on thinking.

This also applies somewhat (though a little differently) to college competitions like the Putnam, but that's a topic for another time.

TL;DR: Some people think math competitions are useless. I think that they're useful because they develop thinking skills and let you meet new people, while having fun with no real pressure. If you don't think it's fun, then don't do it! But if you think it's fun, there's no reason to not do it. ALSO STOP TREATING IT LIKE A GET INTO COLLEGE FREE PASS THAT RUINS THE POINT

lil thing at the bottom: not really sure what I want to do with my blog? I might post a few more jokes in the future, but I think I want to put some serious posts on here every once in a while as well

[creativitylvl0]

Competition math is just taking all the math concepts that you've learned and mix them in really weird ways so that you have to learn new ways to solve them or hiding the important stuff within a freak ton of details that will be useful later in the problem

[the-witchhunter]

DP x DC ramble: Types of power

Now, in this particular fandom, there’s a tendency to make an OP Danny

That’s a neutral statement, a lot of people just happen to like and post OP Danny

For the most part, not my taste but it can be fun in some contexts, but overpowered Danny isn’t my default

Now, Danny is physically strong. His abilities are combat focused and he can hold his own in a fight. He probably has a little less physical strength than you’d think since he uses gravity nullification to lift heavy things, but it’s impressive regardless. He has a goodly variety of offensive and defensive abilities that make him formidable is a fight

But the strongest characters in DC aren’t necessarily strong in that way

Superman is physically very strong, incredibly powerful, but he’s still nowhere near the level of the actual strongest characters, because their power is a very different type

Like I’m talking reality manipulation, omniscience, abilities that involve power over people’s very souls (and a ghost is a human soul) and where they end up. Psychopomps and some much more. I’m talking about beings that can mold the flesh of humans to remove something like a cancer and repair damage with barely a thought

And they’re mainly held in check by rules, mostly just being polite, sometimes Divine laws

This is a type of power Danny is not equipped to handle

It’s a very different game than Danny is playing. He can physically throw down, he might have an army if it’s Ghost King AU, but this is “can kill you with a literal snap and the snap is just for dramatic effect” territory

Danny is playing high school American football, these characters are playing Professional soccer aka what every other country calls football

It’s a very different game, and if he’s trying to play with them, he’s going to struggle

And that’s fine, he can still be OP and not be playing on the same field as Lucifer, or the Spectre, or various demon lords and so on, because it’s a different kind of power

But just arbitrarily saying he’s more powerful really undersells why they are powerful. Being able to punch good is not the same as a character that can just send him to the afterlife. Someone being able to reshape Danny’s body at their will isn’t going to be concerned about his ecto blasts

A Tuna is a big fish, but the ocean is VAST and DEEP

All this to say you’d have to drastically alter Danny’s actual power set to make him able to compete, otherwise you’re just de-powering the actual strongest characters, which is less impressive since it missed the point of WHY they were strong

Just because you can solve a sheet of math problems doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to ace a three page essay on the poetry of Keats

This has been my thoughts on the matter, be sure to grab a souvenir from the gift shop

Also just going to sneak this in:

Danny should probably be more concerned about magic users

Magic clearly can affect him, just look at the Freak Show incident from season one, that’s not even getting into the reality gauntlet. Now add in the fact that there’s a variety of magic items/artifacts in DC and a slew other of magic uses and occultists that can summon and bind ghosts, spirits, and demons to do their bidding

Danny is firmly in the category of beings that magic specifically deals with, he should probably be a bit more concerned about magic users

[one-time-i-dreamt]

My former math teacher (an old nun) was helping me in a math competition against the Devil. If I won, the world was saved. Sadly, I failed her class before and I’m really bad at math.

I did not save the world. But when I lost, the Devil didn’t scare me as much as the sheer disappointment on my parents faces when they found out.

[the-end-of-miky-melodic]

Čumblr/ťumbľr důležitá otázka

[alphabetcompletionist]

sometimes i wonder if there's an xkcd for little ol me

A CDEF HI KLMNO RST WX

17/26

[threefuckencrowsinatrenchcoat]

Hi ppl who are nosy and want to know ur grades so they can judge how smart u are are annoying as fuck

[lenny-zesty]

competitive pokemon has ruined my perception on certain pokemon. oh look at this cute bnnuy :) WRONG THIS THING WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND LAUGH ABOUT IT

[literallycogsworth]

Dies

Its midnight okay idk what to drw 😭

Take this ‼️

[ragnarokhound]

For the au ask game!

OKAY I wanted specifically to get to the pokemon au from the ask you sent, it's been cooking a bit so it's time to see what comes out of the oven, so... @azol-otl ty for the ask!

Crossover au's are all about the fused worldbuilding for me and speculating on how characters from universe A would fit into universe B heehee hoohoo - and for Batfam especially it's fun to think about the equivalent of their roles as vigilantes! What kind of people have the same level of celebrity, the same sideways seeking of justice?

Naturally this leads you to the gym leaders because a) it's the most fun and b) they are like. Quasi-law enforcement/educators/professional athletes depending on how you try to translate the innate child's perspective on the pokemon universe into something that makes sense as an adult lol ilu pokemon. [insert 'compels me though' gif here]

SO with this in mind, here's 5 fun facts (that are mostly backstory lmao) from a jaytim pokemon au I would write

I'm deeply ill about pokemon so this one goes under the cut lol:

Jason Todd used to be the Champion. He won the role after Dick Grayson quit a year or two before (Dick had been getting older and chafing under the League rules - meaning he'd been chafing under how Bruce ran the League) and was a fierce competitor who didn't believe in going easy on anyone. His Houndoom was a force to be reckoned with, and despite running a mostly Dark-type team, his Honchkrow cleaned up anyone thinking their Fighting-types could sweep. He looked after the League and Gotham with a cocky, self-assured attitude and the win record to back it up. .

Jason disappeared suddenly at the age of 15. Many assumed him dead, after a Rocket (Or whatever Gotham themed gang name we want to go with lol could be Team Joker) bombing in the area he'd last been seen, but he's officially declared missing. Bruce Wayne took back the duties of interim Champion as he once did for Dick Grayson, but he's not quite the mentor he once was. It's obvious he's grieving, and that he doesn't want to mentor any more twelve year olds. Dick signed up to be a Gym Leader shortly after this, returning from his trip about a year early to help out in the chaos following Jason's disappearance. .

Enter Tim Drake. Tim's gym challenge wasn't all that interesting in the circuit at first; he had a rocky start and had to retake a few gym challenges. He wasn't exactly sweeping on his first try every time like Jason had done. He didn't have the meteoric rise that caught the Champion's attention early, didn't get one-on-one mentorship or face-to-face meetings, cautionary advice and congratulations all rolled into one from Bruce Wayne himself - but Tim had patience and grit, and he paid attention. He was gunning for the Championship, and it wasn't just so he could prove himself. Team Rocket/Joker was still out there, and Bruce needed all the help he could get. He was always better for Gotham when he had a Robin. .

Dick had been nicknamed Robin for his all-Flying-type team and especially his Natu-then-Xatu; Jason followed up with his Murkrow-then-Honchkrow; Tim's Rookidee was one among many (Robin-esque pokemon were popularized by Dick and the trend remains through Tim's day) so he wasn't considered a possible Robin successor until it was a Corvisquire and he was about to face Dick Grayson himself, a badge away from Victory Road. By then, Tim and his team were a well-oiled machine (he runs mostly Steel-types lol but also Normal-types for the unexpected adaptability and the 'underestimate my rattata i dare you it's in the top peRCENTAGE--' of it all. FEAR.), and his loss-record had all but frozen while his win-record ticked higher and higher. .

Shit finally goes down about three years after Tim has become Champion and all but bullied Bruce into mentoring him (he basically said 'if you don't watch me, i'll go find Team Rocket/Joker on my own' and triggers all of Bruce's child endangerment traumas simultaneously) and the mysterious Rocket/Joker leader Red Hood shows up, bringing the gang out of the shadows in pursuit of a hidden agenda. Identity shenanigans and "wait is that a Houndoom? But he's only been using Ghost-types, it CAN'T be..." and heel-face turns abound. .

(BONUS FACT: Something something, Jason went into deep cover with Looker or whoever he is, that Interpol guy from X & Y (WAIT. LOOKER MIGHT ACTUALLY BE TALIA AL GHUL IN THIS AU HOHOHO), infiltrating the Rocket/Joker gang and going public as Red Hood is the first step in the last phase of the sting. Cue a million tense Jaytim interactions in which Tim is legitimately trying to take Red Hood down and Jason desperately tries to shake him so that he doesn't do anything that forces Jason to blow his cover. There is at least one 'tugged into a tight space to hide them both from the actual bad guys, "wait, did you just HELP me...?" "Think whatever you want, babybird"' interaction because I am a slut for the first sprinkles of a redemption arc that is rife with UST fufufu)

[thechibilitwick]

i decided to do more

[slythdiaries]

21.06.23

Now that my days are all-in math focussed, I'm starting to enjoy the zen I get on a good problem solving day.

And some interesting science research papers I found😳

[josendlessmonolouge]

How ruined is my social life…

[quatregats]

Okay hear me out. What if Hornblower and Lady Barbara but they're high school math olympians and also have a crazy psychosexual rivalry with each other

[hopalongfairywren]

The fact that my entire life was ruined because of a math test in 4th grade

[lewanarta]

Journos wondering why there's not much interest in ski jumping in Japan every time there's World Cup in Sapporo

like maybe if you had to regularly watch competitions in the middle of the night, it would also be hard to build large following of the sport