Sherrardswood’s new Sixth Form Maths Extension Group, “The Euler Society”, is named after the famous 18th century mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer, Leonhard Euler. He is widely considered to be the most prolific mathematician of all time - his collective works amounting to 92 volumes - and his famous equation, “The Euler Identity” linking five of the most important mathematical constants, namely e, i, pi, 1 and 0, has earned him the description of “The Mozart of Maths”.
The society held its first meeting in the Wingate Room on Tuesday evening after school, with a Christmas special ‘Race to the Pole’ between two teams, Donner and Blitzen. Following refreshments, each team had to solve six clues to the location of a series of mathematical questions, which in turn led to the next clue, with the final clue taking them to a fictional North Pole.
It was a very close run race, but Blitzen (Seàn, Zoë, Jay, and Evelyn) pipped Donner (John, Seb and Mimi) to the Pole and were declared the winners. However, given the closeness of the result and the slight disparity in team size, both teams were award prizes.
A good time was had by all and the society’s next meeting will take place in February, following Year 13’s Mock Exams. All A Level students are welcome to attend if they have an enthusiasm for Mathematics, regardless of whether they are studying the subject or not.