Manuiz and MathMagic

Manuiz

Manuiz was a first timer at PSG Kriya - a Manufacturing Quiz for people from the Mechanical, Production, Industrial, Automobile and Aeronautical background conducted by the Production Department students.

For a first timer, Manuiz was superbly organised - The quantity and the quality of questions and participants are enough to prove this statement. There was a prelims round (2 per team and nearly 50 questions) where some 30-40 teams participated and then 6 teams were shortlisted for the finals.I and P were lucky to be among those 6.My classmates SR and SP were also in the last 6.

The final round was conducted by the QuizMaster NK of final yr. Production dept., PSG Tech. And there were8 people to support him..mainly second and third years as Scorers ,Timekeepers and Operators.There were 7 rounds(the fifth round eliminating two teams)
..the longest domain Quiz that I had seen..held for one and a half hours.The question setter had painstakingly chosen and presented the questions in a lovely format.The difficulty level ranged from sitters to very difficult ones...from Mechanical Reasoning to Manufacturing Process Sequencing in types...from simple MCQ no pass rounds to risky gambling/bidding rounds for multiplying or decimating your score!

In all, Manuiz was a successful event both for the organisers (and for me too!)
I hope they conduct it every year with new features and additions...

And the special part was that the QuizMaster finished the Quiz just in time so that I could attend the finals of MathMagic...more about it follows:


MathMagic

MathMagic was another first timer at PSG's Kriya..the name says it all - 'Its all about Math' - one of the most hated subjects in the world!

I was not planing to attend it. But after the Manuiz prelims, we had another half an hour for the CAE workshop to begin...wondering how to while away the time I and my friends decided to take the Audio -Visual Quiz. But one of my friends Snu was too eager to attend this MathMagic event.He fooled us and literally pulled me and another friend to this event saying he was taking us to the Audio-Visual Quiz!

And I was afraid of Math...no not since my school..I was good in Math at school till 10th std....but in 11 and 12 I changed...It was Math that prevented me from getting admitted into the famed NIT's and IIT's (not that my Physics and Chem were excellent :P )...so naturally I was afraid to enter the hall and write the prelims test!

But when somebody pulls u in front of so many people, u can't say No! I had to do what Snu wanted us to do!So, I decided to give it a try...and we wrote the prelims. We came out of the hall in 45 min(i hr. was the time given...but we were getting late for the workshop...)The questions were interesting and kept us engrossed for minutes. I would have stayed for the whole 1 hr. if I didn't have the workshop.The last question was very different(not the typical math problem) - It went like this :
What is your favourite theorem/proof? Give reason why it impressed you(for 5 marks)...I wanted to tell about Fermat but I wasn't quite sure of it...so I left it unanswered like the many other questions!

When I was having a lunch I received a call saying I was selected for the finals of MathMagic..since I was outside it wasn't quite audible and I had to call back and msg. the organisers for the timings and place!The timing clashed with my Manuiz finals..so I called them back to ask for a special late entry ! and I was permitted.

The Manuiz stretched upto 95 min. and I thought that MathMagic would have got over by that time(great escape I thought!)...but just as the Manuiz got over I received a call from a MathMagic organiser teling me to be there within 10 min...I was the last finalist to go on stage!As soon I reached the place, I was greeted by a guy and he asked if VA was my name(When somebody disturbs you by calling you and messaging you for umpteen no. of times...you'll defintely remember that name! But these guys/gals were cool and patient...)

I get onto the stage

I was asked to introduce myself. Name, college, year, department and then I said "Honestly! I am bad at maths and don't have much knowledge about it too! It was my friend who made me come here and I consider myself lucky to get selected for this round...so please be kind to me!"

The examiners/judges

The faculty(they were the judges and the examiners too) were definitely kind to me...there was a mam who kept on encouraging me and kept on giving clues for every question that I was unable to answer(She made me answer them, instead of telling them herself!)...and there was a sir who made me reason for every answer(I was never made to give up...they kept on guiding me and even provided algorithms so that I could get to the answers easily!)

The Questions

The questions ranged from sitters (those were for me because of my special requisition!) to extraordinary ones...from finding the units digit of exponential terms to identifying dirac delta or impulsive functions(The question for this was - what is the function that describes the pain when you get hit by somebody?... Cool na!) to whether mutually exclusive events can be independent? ...to operators that can be used to obtain shadows ( Convolution was the answer...I made the grave mistake of not listening to my Control Systems teacher ..she was teaching about this topic a day ago!)

I fail to answer a sitter :(

There was a question on Permutation and Combination which I failed to answer..I blanked out..reasons:
1.P kept on calling me when I was onstage(he called because the Kriya policy says that both the team members must be present while receiving the prize money..so he needed me urgently).When a mass weighing one pound vibrates and jumps in your jean pockets, you cannot concentrate!
2.There were too many gals in front of me in the hall...and being a Mechie student I was without them for 2 3/4 yrs. in my class..so there was this fear of standing in front of gals and getting humiliated :) !
3.I didn't remember anything about P&C...so I had to think and solve it on the spot...

MathMagic rocks!

MathMagic is an innovative event that makes mathematics look more glamorous, funny and interesting!It made me browse about Maths on wiki the whole day and turned me into a Math Addict...
Keep continuing the good work PSGians! Hope you succeed in your mission of creating more Mathaholics!