Baltic Way (mathematical contest)
The Baltic Way Mathematical Team Contest is taking place yearly international math competition, by the way (yet) the only international team competition in pure mathematics.
History of the competition
The competition was created in 1990 as part of the independence aspirations of the Baltic States: The year before, the people were at a major demonstration a human chain from Vilnius to Tallinn ( Baltic Way ).
Since 1990 also the same mathematics team competition is conducted, initially only the Baltic states themselves from the outset but it was there the goal is to allow all states participate to the Baltic Sea; Germany came in 1997 as the last Baltic Sea -Land added. ( The fact that Iceland - although not baltic - touched - participates, is that Iceland has diplomatically recognized as the first European country the three new ancient Baltic republics. )
This is the " main cast " in the Baltic Way, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Poland, Russia with a team from St. Petersburg and Germany with a team of the coastal states. The competition is conducted annually in another of those States; the Organiser may thereby a guest country, so to speak, an "honorable Baltic country ," Invite to gather a dozen teams. This option was used on three occasions: 2001, Israel was invited to Belarus in 2004 and 2005, Belgium.
Structure of competition
The teams are each composed of five members, who have to go to school. The team needs in a 4.5 - hour examination 20 tasks from the classic areas of competitive mathematics to solve, namely in the areas of algebra, discrete mathematics ( combinatorics ), geometry and number theory. The level of these tasks almost comes close to that of the International Mathematical Olympiads (IMO).
Since no team member can solve all the tasks in the time available, it is important the team to conclude arrangements on the editing and proofreading: So the five must be able to work together.
From all this it follows that the team of young mathematicians and mathematicians must exist that have brought it to the circle of least IMO candidates in the field of competition mathematics.
The German team is led by Rostock and Hamburg; In recent years, Prof. Dr. Hans -Dieter Gronau (Rostock ) of the conductor and Dr. Klaus Henning (Hamburg) the deputy. The preparation for the team typically begins in September, in October, the team members come together then to a seminar, and the respective competition will take place in November at which the seven team members are traveling.
The event itself, although always takes place to a cold area in the corresponding season - but about math, a lot of sightseeing and common action is always provided.