Abigail Wicks, Christy Zhang and Julia Damato used their own research and mathematical formulae to discover the lovers would have made it if they both stayed on the door and put their life jackets underneath it to stay afloat.

When figuring out the problem, they had to take into consideration the door’s buoyancy, and how that would change with people on top of it.

“There was a lot of exploring and testing, and we had to fiddle with different buoyancies and look at what materials were realistic for that time,”

15-year-old Abigail said. Julia, 15, says the team also needed to factor in how the door’s buoyancy would have been affected by the water’s salt content.

Their teacher said - and we agree - that it was a unique opportunity for students to do ‘something a little bit different’ with their maths skills.