This time, Benjamin Meiners achieved the longest streak of correct answers at Georgianum and was rewarded with a cool T-shirt. But is performance really the only thing that counts in life? Hardly. Mathematics can and should be fun. The Kangaroo Competition impressively demonstrates this every year.
How many balls must you draw from a bag containing 11 balls labelled with the numbers 3-13 to guarantee that three balls with prime numbers will be drawn?
"Tasks like these are appealing and challenging. They invite you to think, puzzle and analyse, and they are accessible to almost everyone," says Martin Glosemeyer, head of the maths club.
A total of 268 pupils took part in the competition at the Georgianum this year. Of these, 23 were delighted to receive a prize at the award ceremony.
In Year 10, Jano Gerling, Lisa-Marie Wolters and Nelson Schmidtke each came third. In Year 8, two pupils were successful: Nele Schaaf and Madelon Hibbel. Schaaf was the best in the school with 130 out of 150 points and was delighted to come second. Hibbel came third. In Year 7, three pupils, Lenn Lögering, Matthias Klaas and Emil Zeller, also made it onto the winners' list for third place. Elena Schwiertz came second. In Year 6, Jonte Krieger came second, while Ian Schmidtke and Benjamin Meiners secured third place.
The Georgianum celebrated its greatest success in Year 5, which still participates in the competition as a group. Third place went to Lisa Brungard, Aulon Sinani, Tjark Thönnißen, Jon Frank, Nele Targus, Carla Geers, Justus Wolters and Tilda Ripperda. Finn Hopmann, Simon Fischer and Kyryl Shamis came in second.
Oh, and by the way, the correct answer is 9. This is because the balls with the numbers 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12 are balls without a prime number. After that, in the worst case scenario, three more prime numbers could be drawn, meaning that a total of nine draws would be necessary.