The eighth group of essays from the 2022 Teddy Rocks Maths Competition come from entrants with surnames beginning with the letters S-T. The showcase will take place throughout May and June with the winners being announced at the end.

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 2023 so be sure to follow Tom (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!

Kenzie uses some advanced geometry to investigate the problem of cutting a square pizza into equally sized triangular pieces.

Jimmy investigates the second law of thermodynamics and how it can be applied to our very existence as human beings.

Arnav delves into Galois Theory and the world of abstract algebra to explain why we have a formula for quadratics, third, and fourth order equations, but not quintics.

Shawn provides an overview of some basic concepts in game theory and how they can be applied to economics and politics.

Zah’ra explores the fascinating world of fractals – from infinite sheep herds, to patterns in broccoli and human tissue.

Oliver reduces maths to its foundations to try to uncover the rules that govern what is, and isn’t, possible to prove.

Louis examines the history of mathematical duels in renaissance Italy to identify the important role they played in helping to shape today’s mathematics.

Dhruvq delves into the realm of mathematical games to try to construct an algorithm for determining the winning strategy in the Ancient Chinese game of Nim.

Jiawei introduces the infamous Gabriel’s Horn – a theoretical object that has a volume of pi, but an infinite surface area.

Gabriel has some fun with spaghetti as they explain how to estimate pi by simply throwing pasta on the floor.

Amelie explores chaos theory through the eyes of a bumble bee – from population growth models to the ‘butterfly effect’.