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The Maths behind the Olympic Games

John Barrow, University of Cambridge [read John's biography]

Summary

What's the connection between the Olympic Games and Maths? The material linked to this webpage provides a great opportunity for 13-15 year old students to find out about the lnks between maths and many different sporting activities.

Originally, this material was used in a videoconference with Year 8 and 9 students in Devon, Liverpool, London and Southampton.

Talk

First part of John Barrow's talk. The mathematics of sports
Second part of John Barrow's talk. Balance and inertia; high jump and centre of gravity

Project work

Correlations and predicting the future. Can you find relationships in World and Olympic records? Can you use these to predict the future?
What is the chance of winning?. Analyse the scoring systems for football, tennis or squash to see how likely a team or player is to win a match.
Speed and accuracy. Does it matter how thick your running vest is? Should swimmers grow long fingernails?
Balance and Strength. Why is it that small animals can jump several times their own heights, but larger ones cannot?