“That was ridiculously fast. That time would have won last year’s competition.”
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
So said Figtree Heights Public School student Nate Burns to fellow Number Crunchers’ competitor Zac Hart.
The 10-year-old Bowral Public School student had just completed a jumbled Rubik’s cube in just 32 seconds.
Even Lainee Whitaker, who is responsible for bringing the event to Wollongong for the first time, was impressed by Zac.
“That was amazing. Thirty-two seconds on a Rubik cube is really fast. I haven’t seen it done that fast before. I think [Zac] he is a good candidate for the grand final,” Mrs Whitaker said.
Number Crunchers, which also sees students performing complex mental mathematics computations and stunning feats of memory in reciting Pi to hundreds of decimal places, has been running in Sydney since 2012.
About 50 students from 18 schools attended Thursday’s semi-final at Mount St Thomas Public School.
“I’ve brought Number Crunchers to the Wollongong region because quite frankly we look in our school trophy cabinets and they are full of sporting challenge awards, there are no awards for mathematics,” Mrs Whitaker said.
“This year we want to also celebrate the children who are able to do amazing mathematical things.
“We’ve seen already how students have adapted to the competition and use mental arithmetic, finding strategies on the go to work out the problems.
“I know also a lot of students have gone away and taught themselves how to do the Rubik cube because of this competition. They’ve gone onto YouTube to see how the experts do it.”
Eight competitors from the semi-final will progress to the final to be held at Connells Point Public School on September 3.
“It’s been great so far. I’m looking forward to bringing Number Crunchers back next year and celebrating maths,” the Mount St Thomas Public School teacher said.