School of Mathematics

and Statistics

Mathematics & Statistics

2022 RESEARCH COMPETITION
Junior Booklet
 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

JUNIOR RESEARCH COMPETITION

Students in the junior category (AU: Year 5 - 6, NZ: Year 6-7) may select one of the following
questions to work on, either individually or in a team of up to 3 people. Once they have
finished their research, they must present their findings. They may do this by either:

1. Writing a formal report, or

2. Creating a visual display

The questions in the booklet vary in their level of difficulty in order to allow all students to
participate in the competition. This is taken into account in the judging criteria which varies
depending on the complexity of the research project.

Whenever explicit mathematics is involved, mathematical accuracy is vitally important, as is

the correct use of mathematical language. In addition to these, the judging criteria include
elements for originality, creativity, communication and presentation. Students are also
encouraged to extend beyond the original research questions.

All teams who successfully submit a completed research project will receive a certificate for
either Participation, Merit, High Commendation, Distinction or as a Finalist. Finalists will be
invited to participate in a Finals Presentation in October and will receive a cash prize.

Students have until 10 August 2022 to complete their research and submit their completed
project. The five finalist teams from each age category will be contacted in mid-September.

We hope everyone enjoys the challenge. Good Luck!

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 1

Consider a triangle with sides 𝑎𝑎, 𝑏𝑏, 𝑐𝑐. Let 𝑃𝑃 be the perimeter of this triangle.
• How many different triangles (Figure 1) can we make if the perimeter must equal 24
and each of the sides must be a whole number?

o What if we change the perimeter to 120?

• Can you predict how many triangles are possible for any perimeter you like?
• If the sides can be fractions, will your prediction change? Why/why not?

Figure 1. Different triangles (not to scale).

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 2

You have a piece of waterproof A4 paper (210 x 297 mm). You may cut, fold, and bend the
paper and join the pieces using mathemagical waterproof sticky tape.

You cut up the piece of paper to make a box without a lid (Figure 1).

• What is the largest volume of water you can fill this box with?
• What is the total surface area of the paper that makes up the box?

Now you use the paper to make different 3D shapes (e.g. cone, cylinder, pyramid, etc…).

• What is the largest volume of water you can fill these shapes with?
• What is the total surface area of the paper that makes up these shapes?

Figure 1. Box filled with water Figure 2. Cone filled with water

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 3

You’re making an oddly specific fruit salad that requires exactly 153 strawberries. After a
trip down to Newton's, your local fruit grocer, you see that the punnets come in two sizes:

- a small pack of 7, and

- a large pack of 15.

• How many of each pack size do you need to buy in order get exactly 153
strawberries?
• Is there more than one way to do this?

You buy the strawberries and head home. After checking the recipe again, you realise the
recipe only needs 53 strawberries.

• If you hadn’t bought the strawberries already, is it possible to get exactly 53

strawberries from packs of 7 and 15?
• What is the largest number 𝑁𝑁 that you can’t make from adding multiples of 7 and
15?
• Can you come up with a formula or sequence of steps to figure out 𝑁𝑁 for any two
whole numbers?
• How does your formula change if you introduce a medium pack and have three
whole numbers?

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 4

There are 2 types of decimal numbers in this world; ones that repeat and ones that don’t.
Members of the Outreach Team are big fans of numbers with repeating decimals 1. Popular
repeating decimals are:
1/3 = 0.3333 … = 0. 3̇
1/6 = 0.1666 … = 0.16̇
1/7 = 0.142857142847 … = 0. 1̇ 42857̇
1/11 = 0.090909 … = 0. 0̇ 9̇
8/9 = 0.8888 … = 0. 8̇

The Outreach Team believe repeating decimals have some neat properties and are keen to
learn more about the following areas:
• How can one check if a number has repeating decimal digits?
• For repeating decimals with some non-repeating digits (e.g. 1/6 has 1 digit that is
non-repeating), is there a way to determine the number of non-repeating digits the
number has?
• Given any repeating decimal, is it always possible to represent it as a fraction?
• Of the repeating decimals whose numerator is 1 and whose denominator is < 10,000,
how many numbers have prime denominators compared to composite
denominators?
o What is the ratio of these 2 denominator types?

1
Repeating decimals (a.k.a. recurring decimals) are decimal representation of numbers whose digits repeat
infinitely and periodically (at regular intervals).

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 5

Consider a circle inscribed in a square, then consider a square inscribed inside the circle, and
so on (Figure 1). Define 𝑟𝑟𝑙𝑙 to be the rate at which the radius/side length of the shapes
change with each inscription.
• For the square-circle combination, what is 𝑟𝑟𝑙𝑙 for the square and for the circle?
• Explore 𝑟𝑟𝑙𝑙 for patterns involving other regular polygon 2 combinations and patterns
(e.g. Figure 2).
• Is there a way to predict 𝑟𝑟𝑙𝑙 for any combination of polygons?

Figure 1. Square and circle combination Figure 2. Triangle and circle combination

Define 𝑟𝑟𝐴𝐴 as the rate at which the areas of the regular polygons change with each
inscription.

• What insights can be drawn about 𝑟𝑟𝐴𝐴

• What insights can be drawn in relation to 𝑟𝑟𝑙𝑙 ?

Consider now a cube/sphere combination and define 𝑟𝑟𝑉𝑉 as the rate at which the volumes
change with each inscription.

• What further insights can be drawn?

2
A regular polygon is one whose sides are all the same length.

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 6

A set of 3 whole numbers 𝑎𝑎, 𝑏𝑏, 𝑐𝑐 is said to be a Pythagorean triple if the elements of the set
satisfy the equation:
𝑎𝑎2 + 𝑏𝑏 2 = 𝑐𝑐 2

Define the length efficiency of a Pythagorean triple as 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 = 𝑐𝑐/(𝑎𝑎 + 𝑏𝑏). Some Pythagorean
triples and their length efficiency are listed in the following table:

𝒂𝒂 𝒃𝒃 𝒄𝒄 𝒄𝒄/(𝒂𝒂 + 𝒃𝒃)
3 4 5 0.714286
5 12 13 0.764706
7 24 25 0.806452
8 15 17 0.739130
9 40 41 0.836735
11 60 61 0.859155
12 35 37 0.787234
15 112 113 0.889764
Note: by convention, 𝑎𝑎 is the smallest value and 𝑐𝑐 is the largest value.

Explore the value of 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 for a range of Pythagorean triples:

• Show that 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 is always bigger than 0 and less than 1.

• What are the smallest and largest values of 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 for all Pythagorean triples which have
𝑐𝑐 < 1000?
• What do you think it means for a triangle to be ‘efficient’?
• Comment on any interesting aspects/characteristics about 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 for a range of triples.

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 6 (continued)

Let 𝐸𝐸𝑡𝑡 = 0.8 be the threshold value below which a triple is considered efficient and above
which a triple is considered inefficient.

• What is the proportion of all efficient Pythagorean triples for which 𝑐𝑐 < 1000?

Let 𝜃𝜃 be the angle between sides 𝑐𝑐 and 𝑏𝑏.

• Comment on any interesting aspects/characteristics about 𝜃𝜃 for a range of triples.

• Is there a relationship between 𝜃𝜃 and 𝐸𝐸𝑙𝑙 ? If so, describe it; or, justify why you believe
there is no relationship.

Let 𝐸𝐸𝐴𝐴 be the area efficiency of the triangle formed by the Pythagorean triple where 𝐸𝐸𝐴𝐴 is
the ratio of the area – 𝐴𝐴, to the perimeter – 𝑃𝑃, of the triangle (i.e. 𝐸𝐸𝐴𝐴 = 𝐴𝐴/𝑃𝑃).

• Comment on any interesting aspects/characteristics about 𝐸𝐸𝐴𝐴 for a range of triples.

• What is the range of values that 𝐸𝐸𝐴𝐴 can take?

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 7

Public teleportation is environmentally friendly and can be more affordable than private
teleportation. A teleportation card is needed to travel in the public teleportation network of
Newmathsland. The costs associated with journeys in the network vary depending on the
portal:

Portal Cost per journey - 𝐶𝐶 Top up available

West Axiom 1.67 Yes
South Lemma 1.28 No
North Conjecture 0.70 No
East Corollary 1.55 No
Central Theorem 3.21 Yes

Note the following aspects of the public teleportation network:

- New customers to the network must activate their new card by topping up a
minimum of $10.
- Once in the system, customers can top up in increments of $5 and $10.
- A public teleportation card must have a positive balance in order for a journey to be
initiated.
- The cost per journey is deducted from the card balance when you arrive at the
destination portal.
- You can top up your card from 2 portals: West Axiom and Central Theorem.
- The cost of your journey is refunded if you end your journey on a balance of $3.14.
- Each portal connects to all other portals except North Conjecture, which is only
connected to West Axiom and Central Theorem (Figure 1).

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 7 (continued)

Figure 1. Map of the Newmathsland public teleportation network.

Starting from Central Theorem where a new card is purchased, activated, and topped up to
$10:

• Without topping up at any point, and without visiting any portal more than once,
how many portals can you visit, ending anywhere you like, that ensures you still have
a positive balance when you exit the network?

o What if you can visit any portals as many times as you like?

• Without topping up at any point, what is a possible route around Newmathsland,

ending anywhere you like, such that the closing balance at the end of your journey
equals $3.14?

o Find as many such routes as you can.

• Now consider your previous routes with one top up allowed.

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 8

The following pyramid (Figure 1) is created by placing a 1 at the beginning and end of each
row and then calculating the other terms by adding the two numbers directly above any
position.

Row 0

Row 1

Row 2

Row 3

Row 4

Figure 1. 2D pyramid Figure 2. 3D pyramid

If the triangle was extended to row 100,

• How many odd numbers will there be in row 100?
• How many numbers will be divisible by three in the whole triangle?
• Can we predict how many odd and even numbers there will be in any row? If so,
how? If not, why not?

If we extend this to a 3-dimensional shape (Figure 2) such that each layer starts with a one
in each corner and each other number in the layer is the sum of the numbers directly above
it.
• Are there any patterns similar to those found in the 2-dimensional triangle?
• Can we predict which number will be in the middle of the 10th layer?
• Assuming that you can, what is a way to predict the number in the middle of the 𝑛𝑛th
layer?

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 9

Victorian Pipes & Tubes Pty Ltd 3 is a manufacturing company making pipes and tubes. They
got a contract to manufacture straight steel tubes of perfect circular cross-section. The
quality control procedure used by the company was as follows:

1. A newly produced tube is placed on the horizontal top of a table and a perfectly
horizontal plate is lowered from the top on the tube.
2. When it touches the tube, the distance between the top of the table and the plate –
𝑑𝑑, is measured (Figure 1).
3. The tube is rotated along its axis by 120° and steps 1-2 is repeated.
4. Then the tube is then rotated once more in the same direction by 120° and steps 1-2
is repeated.
5. If all the three measurements agree, the tube is accepted and shipped to the
customer.

Figure 1. Schematic of the quality control procedure.

3
Not a real company

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 9 (continued)

The sister of the head engineer of Victorian Pipes & Tubes visited her brother when the
company just started producing the tubes for that contract. She was very interested in how
a real-life manufacturing company operates and asked her brother to show her all the
stages of the tube production and quality control procedure.

When she saw how the quality control measurements were done, she said “Ouch, you have
got a problem here".

• What was that problem?

• Can you suggest a way to fix it?

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 10

In 2015, at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, a historic Summit took place
wherein an agenda was agreed upon by 193 Member States (countries) of the UN. This
agenda is titled: Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This agenda included 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which apply to all countries.
Adoptees of the agenda, which came into force on 1 January 2016, have committed to
mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change
amongst other outcomes.

Six years on, how is the world progressing towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development (ASD)? The World Development Indicators (WDI) is a compilation of data and
statistics about global development and the fight against poverty; it can be used to
understand the progress of some of the targets of the 2030 ASD.

The WDI comprises 1,400 time series indicators 4 for 217 economies and more than 40
country groups, with data for many indicators going back more than 50 years. The WDI is a
useful tool for understanding the progress of global development across 12 topics:

1. Environment 7. Private Sector & Trade

2. Economic Policy & Debt 8. Social Protection & Labor
3. Infrastructure 9. Education
4. Financial Sector 10. Gender
5. World Bank, International Debt Statistics 11. Health

6. Public Sector 12. Poverty

4
An ‘indicator’ is measurable information about something (e.g. gross domestic product, CO2 emissions).

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 10 (continued)

Consider the indicators relating to CO2 emissions in Australia or New Zealand. Data for
these indicators can be accessed via Google Drive:

• CO2 emission indicators for Australia (CO2_AUS.csv) 5

• CO2 emission indicators for New Zealand (CO2_NZ.csv) 6

Using the data set for your selected country, explore the trends in CO2 emissions by
investigating and writing a report on:

• Trends in emission over time for various fuel types (gaseous, liquid, solid) and output
sectors (production, manufacturing, transport, residential, other).
• Relationships between fuel type and output sector.
• Any outliers/anomalies in the data set.

5
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1medbeURj0m_TSTrSDs1KEyixQESauZWb/view
6
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mqGb448FQGauL2CVkFNe6QiXarDvU0es/view

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 11

The menu at a local canteen contains the following foods and their nutritional information 7:

Food Protein (g) Sodium (mg) Fibre (g) Cost ($)

Breakfast Drink 7.2 181 4.00 4.20
Banana 1.3 0 3.10 1.00
Sausage roll 9.1 333 3.51 4.20
Air popped corn 2.3 80 2.50 3.20
Caesar Salad 7.0 239 3.50 5.40
Veggie Lasagne 7.3 372 6.72 6.20
Party Pie 3.1 184 0.70 2.00
High Protein Yoghurt 15.6 67 0.20 3.50

Imagine you can only eat food from this canteen for all your meals during a day. The
canteen will always have everything in stock and you can eat the same food more than
once.

• Assuming you have $50, pick out a schedule of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner)
so that:
- Total protein consumption is at least 55 g
- Total fibre consumption is at least 20 g
• How might your schedule of meals change if you wanted to spend the least amount
of money possible?
• Do you feel the meals you have chosen are sensible?

7
These values are mostly fictional. You are encouraged to explore the nutritional information of foods as this
is a valuable life skill.

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 Mathematics & Statistics Research Competition
2022 Junior Category

Question 12
Wild Card Project

The wild card project allows you to create your own research question. However, it must be
inspired by, or based on, the following stimulus topic:

Shapes and patterns are all around us

Wild card projects will be judged on the creativity, originality and the complexity of the
mathematics.
Examples of possible wild card projects:

• Structures made by humans take all kinds of shapes and patterns. Explore the
different uses of shapes and patterns in structures such as buildings, bridges, and
vehicles.
• Shapes and patterns take many forms in the natural world; these can be related to
biological systems (e.g. bee hives), natural phenomena (e.g. river networks) and
more. Explore the role of shapes and patterns in our wonderful natural world.
• Which polygon would one use to completely tile the surface a donut?

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