Pupils crunching numbers in maths world-record bid

Competing against pupils from around the world on World Maths Day is Bradford School, Dunedin, pupil Ryan Hill (9). He attempts to solve maths equations as his fellow pupils (from left) Abbey Pearson (8), Storm Maole (8) and Jason-Mark Harmer-Kapa (10) do mental arithmetic. Photo by Jane Dawber.

The Bradford School, Dunedin, pupil is one of hundreds in Otago who are hard at work exercising their digits in a bid to set a world record for the largest online maths competition.

More than 100,000 pupils across New Zealand are challenging each other and other pupils around the world in the fourth annual World Maths Day - a quick-fire, 60-second, online maths game.

The event began at midnight on Tuesday and will conclude at midnight today.

Worldwide, more than 4 million participants are taking part, with about 2500 questions being answered per second, and more than 120 million questions have already been answered correctly, 3P Learning New Zealand chief executive officer and event host Yvonne Blanch said.

World Maths Day is well on its way to setting a Guinness world record for the largest online maths competition.

"It's an exciting day.

"Students in more than 1000 New Zealand schools are putting aside other curriculum activities to concentrate on maths.

"It's a wonderful celebration of this core subject," she said.

Prime Minister John Key said from counting and working out change at the dairy, to balancing the nation's finances and calculating the orbits of the planets, maths was an important part of people's lives.

"It's great to see so many young Kiwis getting involved, learning about maths and having fun."

- john.lewis@odt.co.nz