ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOMBAY, INDIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
WILL THE WHIZ KIDS competing there this week want to be on it? Probably not. To them, math is fun.
Quick. P is a point inside triangle ABC, and D and E are the centers of triangles APB and APC, and angle APB minus angle ACB is equal to angle APC minus angle ABC. Show that lines AP, BD and CE meet at a point.
Stumped? Ask one of the 430 teen-agers from around the world gathered in Bombay to indulge their passion for numbers in the 37th Mathematical Olympiad.
``Mathematics is as creative as the arts,'' said Colombian math whiz Camilo Rivera, 17. ``It is not for nerds.''
Teams of six high school students each from more than 75 countries are participating in the annual two-day contest. On Wednesday and Thursday, they gathered in 12 barren, white-walled rooms of the Bhabha Atomic Research Center in a suburb north of Bombay.
Germany's Arend Bayer sat at a classroom desk Thursday amid papers covered with scribbled tangents and abandoned would-be solutions. A half-eaten sandwich lay next to them. His head slumped into his hands as he thought.
He and the others had 4 1/2 hours to complete three problems each day. As of Friday, the rest of the stay was a chance for sightseeing and meeting their competition before the medals are announced Tuesday.
Many of the teen-agers found that despite their cultural differences, they shared a common love.
``It's nice to meet other kids who are also interested in math,'' said Michael Korn, a 17-year-old from St. Paul, Minn.
And in math, there is no language barrier.
``Even if speech fails, everyone seems to understand sign language,'' said Slovenia's Polona Gresak, 18.
The American team comes from across the United States. Carl Bosley came from Topeka, Kan.; Christopher Chan from Palo Alto, Calif.; Nathan Curtis from Reston, Va.; Carl Miller from Bethesda, Md.; and Alexander Saltman from Austin, Texas.
And Korn, from St. Paul. He said he solved 41/2 of six problems. ``I think that's pretty good.''
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: AP.by CNB