A tree doubled its height every year until
it reached a height of 32 feet at the end of
6 years. What was the height of the tree,
in feet, at the end of 3 years?*

This is but one of the many questions that were presented to the Mathletes in the VI MathCounts competition held in St. Thomas on March 23. When the final round was over, CDS had 4 students in the top 8 for both islands.

This year, for the first time, the audience could view, on a large screen, the questions given to the competing mathletes. The audience was working as diligently as the Mathletes!

The two eighth grade Country Day students will be making the trip to Chicago to go for the national trophy along with the other two top-scoring individuals (both from St. Thomas). CNA, the official sponsor of MathCounts pulls out all the stops to make the National Competition exciting and fun-filled. The mathletes first meet each other at dinner at ESPN Zone, where they are given passes to use all the video games for free for a few hours. The next day, they travel to CNA headquarters for the first three rounds. CNA has the Mathletes piped in (to Scottish bagpipes) and all the CNA employees greet the mathletes with clapping, cheers and the theme
from "Rocky". The final rounds and award ceremony are held in the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry - right in the exhibits!

One enduring tradition of the National MathCounts competition is the collecting of state pins. Each team arrives with their state pin (many made just for MathCounts) to trade - the goal is collect as many state team pins as possible. The Virgin Islands pin is always in GREAT demand. Already the CDS Mathletes are scrambling to find some pins! (If you can help with this let us know!)

Mathletes are tested in algebra, probability, geometry, number theory, and combinatorics. While these topics sound boring, the problems are not.

*Answer to problem: 4 feet