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Just last Thursday evening, I took a stroll at my nearby basketball court to shoot some hoops with my basketball buddy Joshua. In case you didn't know, I am an avid basketball fan. My favourite player is Allen Iverson, now playing for the Denver Nuggets, and I try at best to emulate his style. Those who play with me should see me pull the standard Iverson repertoire of crossovers, reverse lay up, dribble and pull-up and basically just lower the shoulder and drive hard to the hoop.

Just before the bunch of us guys decided to take it out 3-on-3 style, I was practicing my usual jump shots till I realize how much I love the game of basketball. Yes, it is about beating others in the game. Yes, it is about dunking on someone (I wish I could). But most importantly, I love it because it is a simple game.

A court with five guys on one team with 1 objective in mind: Put the ball in the opposition's basket and prevent them from doing that to you. Simple enough right. It is from this one objective that brings about all the other fancy moves in the game.

These moves didn't come instantly, but it took time for players to starting developing them. In the 80s, Magic 'invented' the no-look pass to deceive defenders that he was going to score but instead passed to a teammate which was in a better position to do so. In the 90s, Jordon 'invented' head fake to stun the opposition so they couldn't get in his way as he attacked the rim. All this came to achieve the same goal: Put the ball in the basket.

Upon thinking of my love for basketball, I oddly enough, started thinking of my love for mathematics and how it's 'simplicity' can be likened to basketball. I don't know exactly how Calculus was developed in the 1680s, but I guess Newton simply thought of one objective - find the rate of change of y with the respect to x. And from that objective came the first derivative, chain rule, product rule, partial differentiation, differential equations, techniques invented, just like how basketball moves where invented, to meet that objective or at least find an easier way to do so.

Back to basketball, new techniques as players became creative in scoring. They turn something as simple as the dribble to fancy and complex moves like the crossover, thru-the-legs, spin dribble.

Similarly, I also believe that mathematics is one of the natural sciences where talent and creativity of the mind can be easily expressed even when the student is equipped with a small set of definitions, in say, complex numbers. Just think about. By knowing the main definitions - the imaginary number, complex conjugate and magnitude, Euler's formula and possible De Moivre's theorem, one can solve a whole range of problems ranging from SATs, A levels, AMCs and Olympiads. It becomes a matter of how the student manipulates the formulas to handle a situation, just like how I need to spin dribble to get around a defender.

This is unlike Physics. You probably need some experience with Faraday's law, a good hold of lines of force in magnetic fields, correct implementation of right-hand and left-hand rules, and even some knowledge of current in a coil to solve an standard A-level exam question. By saying current flows in the direction of negative charge is wrong. (Hmmm ... Even with that, you need to understand the definition of 'conventional current')

I believe this is the main reason why Mathematics has more competitions at the high school and university level compared with any of the other natural science. Think about it. Top students are take part in AMCs, Olympiads and even the William Lowell Putnam, all a showcase of how a creative student takes what basic definitions he holds to achieve the objective.

So as I put the ball in the hoop, I'm on my way in thinking my new move. Let's see, how about spin dribble, hesitate and freeze my opponent, hit him with a crossover, and finish on the reserve side. Man, I love basketball!