Ep 402: Norm Do, Casey Duggan (March 13, 2012)

Rounds: Here.


Norm is asked to explain the difference between pure mathematics and applied mathematics.  He says that pure mathematics is more abstract and is motivated by ideas, whereas applied mathematics is mathematics in the field and is motivated by real-world problems.  He adds that -- despite the rivalry between the two areas -- the actual division is somewhat nebulous.

Tonight's challenger is product manager Casey Duggan.  Last year she went on a bear-viewing holiday with her husband.  This was in an Alaskan national park, and every day they would go and watch bears catching fish and doing other bear-like things.  These were big brown bears, catching salmon in the streams, etc.  At times they were only a couple of metres away, which sounds pretty worrying to me.  Their guide had a can of "bear spray" (a variety of pepper spray) as their only defense, which... well, just as well it was not needed, anyway.


Both contestants start with an invalid word (the same one, in fact), and match results a couple of later times, but mostly Norm draws steadily ahead, gaining with a couple of letters rounds and all of the numbers rounds.  He caps it off by solving the conundrum again for a 58 to 13 victory.

A somewhat mixed effort from me tonight; I did find some good words, but overreached in one round and ended up with an invalid one.  Then I got lost on what should have been a very easy numbers round, and was beaten to the conundrum.  I'd still done enough to win, but I'm disappointed about the numbers round -- I conceded far too many 10-pointers in similar fashion last series.