A Brilliant Young Mind Page #3

been lying dormant?

It's not often we have a mind like

yours spring up off the radar.

He's mine.

I mean, I'm his... Um,

I've been teaching him.

The plot thickens.

Well, we'll get you

signed in, shall we?

Just a quick goodbye

and then avanti.

Well, Nathan, darling.

Um...

You got your phone

on you? Yeah?

Yeah.

Make sure you ring me as

soon as you land, yeah?

- All right. Bye, then.

- Bye.

Sorry.

Time to meet your

peers, Nathan.

Mingle. Mingle.

Um, watch your step, there's

a chess game going on.

Hey. How do you do?

How do I do what?

I mean, what's your name?

- Nathan.

- I'm Isaac.

I'm guessing this is your first

maths camp? You'll be fine.

Best thing is just to dive in.

Come. Sit down.

I mean, can you believe

the Chinese team?

They won six golds

again last year.

Yes, although upon recent evidential

proof I'd expect this to possibly change,

if I'm allowed to split

infinitives, to possibly change.

Which I believe I

technically am now.

Of course, one of the most

famous infinitive splits of all time

came in the introductory lines of

Star Trek, "to boldly go," and...

I think if the writers of a popular

American television series

can get away with it for 40

years, then, really, any of us can.

Don't worry, he's

always like this.

Everyone, this is Nathan.

- Hi, Nathan.

- Hello, Nathan.

Hi, I'm Pav.

Paf?

P-A-V, Pav.

Pav is from India. Pav.

Actually I'm from

Chipping Norton.

Yes, but of course I meant your

origins, not your birthplace,

before we open that

little Pandora's box.

Dear!

Seat belts on, please.

Seat belts on.

Right, don't sit at the front next

to the driver, that's my seat.

Right, away you go, driver.

Now, you are 16 of the cleverest

young brains in this country.

Now, outside you might be

considered nerds or geeks

or whatever the insult

du jour might be.

But here, you are

among kindred spirits.

Now, assuming you're

capable of basic arithmetic,

you'll know that there are six places

available yet more than six of you.

Which means that this, to a large

extent, is about whittling you down.

Now, we will be training with four

other national teams in Taiwan.

And after some delicate

diplomatic negotiation,

I can confirm that the

Chinese will be one of them.

Now we should, of

course, be cordial

as it falls to us to host the

competition this year, in Cambridge.

But that doesn't mean

we can't be ruthless.

Now, I want you up there with

the Chinese, top of the table.

And I will consider it an abhorrent

failure to include a candidate

who does not win a medal.

Be under no illusion.

This is all about winning.

Although that doesn't

mean it can't be fun.

55, 89, 144,

233, 377,

987, 1,597, 2,584.

I like the Fibonacci

sequence, too.

Invaluable for

music compositions.

So you're new.

Fresh meat.

How's that going?

Okay, so you're the shy type.

Makes a nice change,

to be honest.

Most of these weirdos just wanna show off

about how much maths junk they know.

What?

Nothing.

It's just I'm usually

the weird one.

They do all seem good

at maths, though.

Yeah.

Here you are neither weird nor the

best mathematician, I'm afraid.

You are painstakingly average.

Post-Olympiad of course,

I'll need to branch out into

modem theoretical physics if I'm

going to describe a unified field theory

for the four fundamental

forces of nature.

Are you one of the fundamental

forces of nature, Luke?

No.

But you are terribly

gifted, aren't you?

Yes. Gifted but not

arrogant, Isaac.

Here we are. Maths

camp, Taipei.

Your home for the

next two weeks.

Right, everybody out.

Don't forget your umbrellas.

There's a typhoon coming.

- Hello.

- Hello. Welcome to Taiwan.

- Nice to meet you.

- Hello. I'm Richard.

My name is Jason.

Nice to meet you, Jaigen.

- Jason. Yeah.

- Jason. I'm sorry.

Jason. It was the accent.

Hello. Nice to meet you.

Right, come on, get

your bags. Chop-chop.

Can someone help

the man, please?

It's not the days of the

Empire. Thank you.

Here comes the typhoon!

Batten down the hatches.

Taiwanese.

Currently below

us in the rankings,

but they're our hosts, so

we should be gracious.

Here's the real competition.

The Chinese.

Guys, check out the board.

Is she messing around with

the Goldbach Conjecture?

Maybe it's what they do for fun.

I love cracking unprovable

theorems in my free time.

No one has proven

that it's unprovable.

Right, come on.

They won't bite.

The enemy!

Surrender or die!

Deng Laoshi.

Dear Richard, welcome.

- Such an honour to have you here.

- Thank you.

- Ni hao.

- Ni hao.

Students, hello.

I hope you are ready

for some mathematics.

Now, pay attention, Team UK.

Deng Laoshi and I have decided to

pair you up with a Chinese buddy

and you should make the

most of this opportunity,

or, more to the point, you should

spy on your Chinese counterpart

and bring their trade

secrets to Blighty.

Very funny, Richard.

Luke Shelton.

Zhang Zhi.

Hello. My name is Zhang Zhi.

Luke.

Nathan Ellis.

Zhang Mei.

Nice to meet you. My

name is Zhang Mei.

Pavinder Kamdar.

This is Shao Tong.

- Nice to meet you.

- Ni hao.

And you know my uncle.

Nathan. The lucky one

learning from my niece?

We have high

expectations for her.

And for you, of course.

High expectations

all round, I say.

Zhang Mei.

Yes, of course, though it may be the

world's fastest developing nation

some of the cuisine doesn't seem

to have advanced quite so quickly.

- Careful. Careful.

- Look at this.

- Thank you. Zhi Zhia... Xie xie.

- Xie xie.

- You put this in there?

- You put the raw food in this.

In the peanut sauce?

- No.

- Okay, okay, I'll do that.

You don't use them... Like that.

Hold it like this and

pinch it like a lobster.

Yeah.

So, Nathan, what was your

score on the mock IMO paper?

Zhang Mei got the full seven

marks on questions one to three.

Though her combinatorics

is her weakest area.

I'm really not... Not that good.

No, but you soon will be.

Nathan, are you okay?

Almost everyone on the

camp speaks English.

It is expected of us.

You speak it very well.

Thank you.

So do you.

Chinese, I mean.

You don't say a lot

in English at all.

This room seems

reasonably symmetrical.

Apart from the window.

I don't know about you,

but I don't appreciate this

forced proximity to each other.

I'll take this side.

I'm going to the bathroom.

You dirty little bastard.

Go on, then.

My God, that is

absolutely disgusting.

Boom! Wanker.

Yeah?

- Yes. Who's this?

- It's...

Nathan? Is that you?

How are you doing?

How's it going out there?

Everything's different and

everyone's cleverer than me.

Look, Nathan, it's your

first night away and...

And first nights away are

always really, really sh*t.

I mean, it's only

a fortnight, innit?

That's 14 days. And what's 14?

- A positive integer.

- Positive integer.

So think positively.

Which is the square root of?

Whose prime factorisation is?

Two squared by seven squared.

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