Mathematics and sports / edited by Joseph A. Gallian.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gallian, Joseph A., editor.

Mathematical Association of America, issuing body.

Series:

Dolciani mathematical expositions ; no. 43

Dolciani Mathematical Expositions, v. 43

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sports--Mathematics.

Sports.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 329 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Mathematics & Sports

Place of Publication:

Washington : Mathematical Association of America, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book is an eclectic compendium of the essays solicited for the 2010 Mathematics Awareness Month web page on the theme of Mathematics and Sports. In keeping with the goal of promoting mathematics awareness to a broad audience, all of the articles are accessible to college level mathematics students and many are accessible to the general public. The book is divided into sections by the kind of sports. The section on football includes an article that evaluates a method for reducing the advantage of the winner of a coin flip in an NFL overtime game; the section on track and field examines the ultimate limit on how fast a human can run 100 meters; the section on baseball includes an article on the likelihood of streaks; the section on golf has an article that describes the double-pendulum model of a golf swing, and an article on modeling Tiger Wood's career. The articles provide source material for classroom use and student projects. Many students will find mathematical ideas motivated by examples taken from sports more interesting than the examples selected from traditional sources.

Contents:

I. Baseball. Sabermetrics : the past, the present, and the future / Jim Albert

Surprising streaks and playoff parity : probability problems in a sports context / Rick Cleary

Did humidifying the baseball decrease the number of homers at Coors Field? / Howard Penn

Streaking : finding the probability for a batting streak / Stanley Rothman and Quoc Le

II. Basketball. Bracketology : how can math help? / Tim Chartier [and others]

Down 4 with a minute to go / G. Edgar Parker

Jump shot mathematics / Howard Penn

III. Football. How deep is your playbook? / Tricia Muldoon Brown and Eric B. Kahn

A look at overtime in the NFL / Chris Jones

Extending the Colley method to generate predictive football rankings / R. Drew Pasteur

When perfect isn't good enough : retrodictive rankings in college football / R. Drew Pasteur

IV. Golf. The science of the drive / Douglas N. Arnold

Is Tiger Woods a winner? / Scott M. Berry

G.H. Hardy's golfing adventure / Roland Minton

Tigermetrics / Roland Minton

V. NASCAR. Can mathematics make a difference? Exploring tire troubles in NASCAR / Cheryll E. Crowe

VI. Scheduling. Scheduling a tournament / Dalibor Froncek

VII. Soccer

Bending a soccer ball with math / Tim Chartier

VIII. Tennis. Teaching mathematics and statistics using tennis / Reza Noubary

Percentage play in tennis / G. Edgar Parker

IX. Track and field. The effects of wind and altitude in the 400m sprint with various IAAF track geometries / Vanessa Alday and Michael Frantz

Mathematical ranking of the Division III track and field conferences / Chris Fisette

What is the speed limit for men's 100 meter dash / Reza Noubary

May the best team win : determining the winner of a cross country race / Stephen Szydlik

Biomechanics of running and walking / Anthony Tongen and Roshna E. Wunderlich.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-61444-200-2

OCLC:

939263617