The National # Math League is proud to announce the beginning of its third season of # competition. Under the direction of founder and commissioner Cody L. Patterson, NOML challenges math enthusiasts of all ages to stretch their mathematical boundaries with a series of exciting problems that begins in September and stretches into May.
In the 2005-06 season, teams from across America will square off in head-to-head matches for the right to play in Cody Bowl V, one of the biggest mathematical competition events of the year. For the first time ever, NOML is truly a league without boundaries. Middle school students will face off against college math majors on problems designed to test ingenuity rather than content knowledge. Players at the age of 13 will have the chance to collaborate with players at the age of 23 on problems that read like mathematical theorems, inviting exploration, generalization, and conjecture. All of this is due to the league's new "No Boundaries" format, which gives every player in the league access to every problem, without restrictions on roster size, individual test difficulty, and team test collaboration.
Once again, NOML seeks to create a winning formula by taking the best of the old - our two-pronged contest format - and combining it some fresh faces and some new adjustments to maximize the level of excitement throughout the season. As always, each NOML match pits two teams against each other - no free-for-alls here, either you win or you lose. Each match consists of two rounds - a fast-paced Individual Round with questions that test on-the-spot thinking and cleverness, and a mentally taxing Vertical Round with questions that invite team members to work together to explore unfamiliar problems and present their results. The "fresh faces" come in the form of a set of outstanding new problem writers, including Joel Lewis, Jeffrey Middleton, Robert Nix, Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo, and Nathan Savir. As for the "adjustments" - you'll have to wait and see!
NOML is proud to offer a math league that runs throughout the entire academic year, is on par with some of the nation's most prestigious contests in terms of problem quality, has an # format that allows students from different parts of the world to join together in team competition, and is still completely free. All you need to join is an e-mail address, and the desire to dig into some fun and engaging problems. To get in on the action, send an e-mail to
codybowl@gmail.com with the following information:
* Your name,
* Your e-mail address,
* Your AIM screen name (if applicable),
* Where you're from,
* Where you go to school (if applicable),
* A few words about your previous math contest experience (if you have any - if you don't, we're happy to be your first competition!)
* And whether you're interested in owning your own team. (It's a fairly substantial responsibility, and if you're not sure you want to make such a commitment, we're happy to put you on one of our pre-existing teams.)
Uh, the last part is probably not gonna happen until Fall.