MATH STUDENT WINS GOLD.Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer Zarathustra Brady's knowledge of math, combined with his good study skills, added up to a gold medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize for him at the 47th Annual International Mathematics Olympiad held in Slovenia recently. Brady, 15, a Van Nuys resident, will be a senior this fall at Magnolia Magnolia, city, United States Magnolia (măgnō`lyə), city (1990 pop. 11,151), seat of Columbia co., SW Ark.; inc. 1855. Its oil industry has been important since 1938. Science Academy, a charter school in Reseda that's part of the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. . Each participating country sends six students. Each student takes a two-day, nine-hour test with six problems. Sometimes the questions have numerical answers, but students have to explain how they reached their conclusions. Other questions require a written explanation called a ``proof,'' in which the students explain that if one thing is true and another thing is true, then the final result must be true. Brady's toughest question combined geometry and combinatorics combinatorics (kŏm'bənətôr`ĭks) or combinatorial analysis (kŏm'bĭnətôr`ēəl) , which is the study of counting and how many ways you can arrange something. The question featured a polygon polygon, closed plane figure bounded by straight line segments as sides. A polygon is convex if any two points inside the polygon can be connected by a line segment that does not intersect any side. If a side is intersected, the polygon is called concave. with several triangles inside it. He had to prove that the total area of the triangles was at least twice the area of the polygon. He said none of the other students correctly answered that one -- and neither did he. The other geometry question he answered correctly. He also gave right answers on three of the other four questions, earning him a gold medal in the competition. Only about one-twelfth of the contestants received gold medals, Brady said. The U.S. team won two gold medals and four silver medals. Brady was the only student from California to make the U.S. team in the past 12 years. In this year's competition, 498 students participated. Brady said geometry is his weakest math subject and number theory, which is basically what used to be called arithmetic, is his strongest. After graduation, Brady plans to attend the California Institute of Technology California Institute of Technology, at Pasadena, Calif.; originally for men, became coeducational in 1970; founded 1891 as Throop Polytechnic Institute; called Throop College of Technology, 1913–20. in Pasadena, which has a strong math program. Eventually, Brady would like to become a research mathematician and stay in the academic world. If not that, he would like to either go into photography or become a ``quant,'' someone who works for hedge funds hedge fund, in finance, a highly speculative, largely unregulated investment device. Originating in the 1950s, the funds "hedge" by offsetting "short" positions (borrowing a security and then selling it at a higher price before repaying the lender) against "long" in the stock market doing financial analysis and creating trading models. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Brady |
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