Working out that the Earth can sustain only another 620 million people has got four South Auckland high school students a trip to Hong Kong to pick up a prestigious international maths prize.
Manurewa High School's mathematical elite - Ella, Aimee, Aaron and John - were given five days earlier this year to compete in the International Mathematical Modelling Challenge, Seven Sharp reports.
It meant giving up the first week of their holidays to work on a "simple" question.
"The question was, 'What is the Earth's carrying capacity for the human species?'" said Kerri Spooner, AUT Maths lecturer and judge for the contest.
Or to put it in layman's terms, how many people can we fit on Earth?
Aaron explained the challenge as: "Find how many resources we need, find out how many we have, and divide."
Their calculations included how much food, water and land use one person consumes in a year.
The team's work went up against similar reports from 33 other countries, and the Manurewa students were in the top five worldwide.
It means they'll be jetting to the International Conference for Teaching Mathematical Applications in Hong Kong.
"The beauty of mathematical modelling is that there isn't a right or wrong thing, and that there's an opportunity, and you can use real world maths to solve real world problems," Ms Spooner said.
The group worked out that with the Earth's current population at 7.4 billion, the planet can sustain 8.02 billion. That means there's only another 620 million to go.
And for all their success in the challenge, the Manurewa school students don't see themselves as geniuses.
"For me, I wouldn't say I'm a prodigy or anything. I only really know the curriculum taught in schools," said Aimee.
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