Ritangle

Registration

• One student from the team must register the team and give the names of all team members to the nominating teacher.
• The student who registers will be the Team Captain, and must be in school year 12 or 13, or equivalent if outside England.
• Students can only be in one team.
• There is no limit on the number of team members (4 or 5 is suggested).
• All students must be from the same school/college
• A teacher can be a Nominated Teacher for multiple teams

Information required to register:

• School/college name, postcode
• Team Captain’s name
• Team Captain’s e-mail address
• Nominating Teacher’s name
• Nominating Teacher’s e-mail address

A team must register in order to submit answers to be in with the chance to win the competition.

Ritangle is pronounced like ‘right angle’ or ‘wry tangle’.

We will release a full set of rules before the competition starts for that academic year; however, here are some that never change.

• Do not share answers! Please don’t share your answers outside your team, online or anywhere else; this ruins the fun!
• The use of AI is not permitted in answering Ritangle questions
• Teachers should not help students; they are only permitted to help with relevant theory.
• Teams should not seek help from online forums or elsewhere; all sharing of ideas should be strictly within the team.

Please note: anyone found leaking the answers or clues inappropriately and anyone found intentionally using such leaks will be disqualified from the competition.

If you can’t answer a question, then we advise you to carry on with the next question. You can always come back to a question afterwards, before the final.

You do not have to answer every question correctly to win the overall competition; however, the final question is easier to unlock if you have.

If it is apparent that a question is too difficult, hints may be provided publicly by the Ritangle team.

Yes! Judges will need to see evidence of working out from the leading teams before announcing the winners.

Clues released on submission of correct answers are required to unlock the final question.

We recommend that each team nominates a member as Team Archivist to keep the team’s working for the questions as they are attempted.

It is against the rules to use AI in Ritangle. The winning team will be asked to submit all their work for each question, and it should be clear from this, along with the timestamps associated with the submission of answers, that AI has not been used.

Otherwise, we encourage the use of technology; spreadsheets, graphing software, and programming can be particularly useful.

Please note: any team repeatedly attempting to use an automated process to systematically enter answers until the correct answer is found will be disqualified from the competition.

Python

General advice about Python – Notes and Examples from Integral

Excel

Using Excel for mathematical investigation – Go to Nrich webpage
Using Excel to solve a problem involving the digits of numbers – Download
Introduction to programming Excel using Visual Basic – Download

GeoGebra

Graphics/Algebra views and Graphics Style Bar – Guide 1
Functions, Dynamic Text and Graphics 2 – Guide 2
Commands, Spreadsheets and Statistics – Guide 3
Vectors, CAS and 3D views – Guide 4

We hope that 16:00 on Friday makes it a level playing field: teams can gather after school at the home of one team member, and they are not dependent on being allowed off timetable for the next two days in order to work on the problem.

The intention is that the final task is challenging to complete quickly, but we are always surprised at the ingenuity of our teams!

We have considered dropping the race-to-the-line element of the final task and having a more qualitative task for those scoring fully on the final question. We have decided to shelve this alternative for now.

All participating teams will receive a certificate, which will be emailed to their Nominated Teacher.

The winning team will receive a maths hamper containing a mix of prizes for individual team members. It also includes a free year-long subscription to MEI’s Learning Platform Integral, and a trophy for their school/college.

The winning team will be contacted via the Nominating Teacher to verify details of the team and their participation.

The decision of the judges is final. The winning team and the answers will be announced on this webpage and MEI’s social media channels.

Please note: the following is subject to the team providing sufficient evidence (in the opinion of the judges) of their working.

Answers to the final question will be accepted until the date published in the Information and Rules document.

Scenario 1
The highest-scoring team on the final question will be declared the winner.

Scenario 2
If there is more than one team with the highest score on the final question, the winner will be the team that submitted their answers first.

Scenario 3
In the event that the above does not determine a winner, the winning team will be chosen at the discretion of the judges based on the answers submitted.