I recently went to Wyoming for the first time for a math camp (Math in the Mountains). Everything about this trip was good, except for the fact that there were bugs there and that I dropped my iPad, which we now need to repair.

On the first day, we went whitewater rafting as a community event. This actually did unify the community, and because of that, I can now officially say that I have drunk half-diluted “champagne”. It isn’t actually champagne, but just a bubbly part from after the rapids, where a bunch of air bubbles appear because air got trapped under the rapids. After that, we went “hiking” (more like walking) along the banks of the Snake river, where we did see snakes.

From the second day on, we actually started to do math. I had mathematics of fairness first, then problem solving and games, and finally, intro to number theory. Surprisingly, they were all in the same classroom, and taught by the same family.

Mathematics of fairness focused on modeling an election and finding all the possible outcomes. We had 5 different candidates, and we found ways for all of them to win. This was very inspiring to me, because even though I knew that an election outcome could be changed, I never knew that it could be swayed this far. At the end of the class, which ended on the fourth day, we elected one of our own classes to see how the strategies would change.

Problem solving and games focused on finding strategies to solve problems. The strategies included simple things like working backwards, asking an easier question, and drawing a picture. The strategies were all things that I knew, but the class expanded on the strategies, and we finally solved a game called “Merlin” (it was really hard).

Introduction to number theory started with the simple prime factorization, and then moved on to the sum of factors of a number. Even though it wasn’t that hard, the problems were very new and presented a problem that was satisfying to solve every time.

On the fifth day, I switched from mathematics of fairness to sequences and series, which was NOT about things like arithmetic and geometric series and sequences. Instead, it was about things like numbers in the Fibonacci sequence that are divisible by a number, and a difference game where you have four numbers arranged on the vertices of a square, and you put the positive difference on the midpoint of each side. Then, you could make another square out of those midpoints, and repeat. The goal of making the sequence last as long as possible was optimized surprisingly by the ratio of the Tribonacci numbers. This class was very interesting to me, even though I joined in the middle of the second class. Sadly, on the sixth day, all the classes ended, with intro to number theory ending a day early.

We did do some other things, though. As I already mentioned above, we went whitewater rafting on the first day. On the third day, we went on an aerial tram to the top of a mountain in a place called Corbet’s Cabin where we had waffles. On the fourth day, we had to wake up at 5:00 to do a wildlife tour, where we saw a lot of deer, 2 bears, and got to go on the roof of the car. On the last day, we went to a ropes course, where I only got two runs because a crying baby didn’t want to belay down to the ground from the platform.

But, there’s still something missing. Jackson Hole was the most beautiful place that I’ve been, especially after the dullness of a city. On the first day when I opened the window, the air actually smelled sweet. There were forests, lakes, plains, and mountains all in the same area. Even the rivers looked more like rivers than anywhere else! Coupled with an interesting backstory, this is definitely my favorite place, even outranking my bed.

I can confidently say that this was the highlight of this summer even though this summer hasn’t ended, combining two of my favorite things. This experience has redefined my definition of math, and has opened my eyes to see that math isn’t just computational / formula stuff. I hope that I can do this same thing next summer too!