The ninth – and final – group of essays from the 2021 Teddy Rocks Maths Competition come from entrants with names beginning with the letters U, V, W, X, Y or Z. The showcase has now finished and the winners will be announced shortly.

The competition was organised with St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford and offers a cash prize plus publication on the university website. It will be running again in early 2022 so be sure to follow Tom (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!

All essays can be read in full (as submitted) by clicking on the title below. If you enjoy any of them please let the author know by leaving a comment.

Venkata takes us on a tour of the unpredictable world of chaos – from weather systems to the beating of your heart.

Xavier introduces us to ‘God’s Number’ – the number of moves required to solve any Rubik’s Cube.

Yahye takes us back in time to the earliest work in trigonometry and how it was used to construct civilisations.

Yashvir delves into the mouldable world of topology where things are not quite what they may first seem.

Yonni calculates the likelihood of obtaining some of the best poker hands, and what you can do to maximise your chances of winning.

Yuk-Fai teaches us how to estimate large numbers using a neat formula involving both pi and e.

Zakaria discusses the smallest possible unit of time and how we might try to measure it.

Zakariya explores several problems based on the game of chess – from placing Queen’s to touring with knights.

Zaynab investigates the history of our number system and how it has developed over thousands of years.

Zhuojun explains a popular joke and provides a clever puzzle to test our knowledge of binary numbers.