Monthly
Maths
I s s u e 1 0
Maths Club
Strategy Games
Countdown
to zero
• You need one
calculator
• Take turns to start
each game
• Start with number 3
on the calculator
• Each player
chooses to subtract
either: 0.1, 0.2, 0.3,
0.4 or 0.5
e.g.
• Start with 3
• Player 1 subtracts
0.4, giving a new
total of 2.6
• Player 2 subtracts
0.5, giving a new
total of 2.1
…and so on to zero
The winner (or the
loser if you prefer) is
the player who
makes zero
Variations:
• Can be played with
3 players
• or with a different
total
• or subtract any
multiple of 0.1 up to
0.9
math-salamanders.com
N o v e m b e r
The Millennium
Mathematics
Project (MMP) is
a maths education
initiative for ages
5 to 19 and the
general public,
based at the University of
Cambridge and active nationally and
internationally. includes the Plus,
NRICH and Motivate websites. Each
of these has a wealth of valuable
resources linking mathematics with
sport and the Olympic Games.
The
mathematics
of sport. NRICH
has hands-on
problems, activities and articles.
Read more
The Maths behind the Olympic
Games by John Barrow, University
of Cambridge is included in Motivate
website’s cross-curricular maths
resources. Read more
ArcelorMittal Orbit
An iconic legacy for the
London 2012 Games, this
£19m sculpture follows an
orbit, linking with itself for
stability. Read more here
and here. View video.
AQA offers a free
classroom poster, with
a map of all the London venues and
some Maths activities built in at
GCSE Grade D/C, and Functional
Maths Level 2. Read more
Useful links
MEI Maths Item
of the Month
Innovators in
mathematics education
www.mei.org.uk
2 0 1 1
Teacher package:
Mathematics in sport
Plus Magazine brings
together a comprehensive package of all of its
articles that have to do with sport, from cricket to
football and from the sport itself to sporting
architecture and infrastructure. Read more
Maths and Sport:
Countdown to the Games
All of the Plus current project
resources have been brought
together under the topics: ‘Olympic and Paralympic
Sports’; ‘Medal Tables & Performance Rankings’;
‘Architecture, Equipment and Infrastructure’. There
are two types of content: Activities and Articles.
View content by Key Stage. View content by Sport.
Maths of Sport Roadshow the Maths Pentathlon
In addition to the free online
resources, the Millennium
Mathematics Project has also
developed a Maths of Sport Roadshow for schools,
with formats suitable for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4,
which can be booked to visit schools for a special
maths event. £595: whole day; £415 half day.
National Aquatics Center
The swimming venue design
for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
was inspired by the
mathematics (and physics) of
foam. The structure was made from a slightly
curved dodecahedron and a 14-sided shape with
two opposite hexagonal faces and 12 pentagonal
faces. With no triangles in the structure, the
structure has the flexibility better able to withstand
earthquakes. Read more here, here and here
The SportatSchool project (run by the
Royal Statistical Society Centre for Statistical
Education) offers data handling and other
resources with a sporting connection. Read more
MEI has produced a set of Statistics posters
that includes the title: ‘Are some Olympics
judges more generous than others?’ A CD contains the set
of three posters in a simplified format to print in A4 size for
student folders or for use on a whiteboard. Read more
Disclaimer: This newsletter provides links to other Internet sites for the convenience of users. MEI is not responsible for the availability or content of these
external sites, nor does MEI endorse or guarantee the products, services, or information described or offered at these other Internet sites.
Frank Duckworth MBE
"What we've done is provide a mathematical method in
a non-mathematical world. One must expect that there
will be cynicism."
The Maths
Careers
website,
maintained
by the
Institute of
Mathematics and
its Applications,
has information
about the
mathematics in
sport and sporting
careers. Read more
Tony Lewis MBE
The Duckworth–Lewis method (D/L method)
‘Devised by statisticians Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis, the Duckworth–Lewis method is a
mathematical formulation designed to calculate the target score for the team batting second in
a one-day cricket or Twenty20 cricket match interrupted by weather or other circumstance. It
was first used in international cricket in the second game of the 1996/7 Zimbabwe versus
England One Day International series, which Zimbabwe won by seven runs, and was formally
adopted by the International Cricket Council in 2001 as the standard method of calculating
target scores in rain shortened one-day matches. The D/L method is generally accepted to be
a fair and accurate method of setting a target score, but as it attempts to predict what would
have happened had the game come to its natural conclusion, it generates some controversy.’
Read more from Wikipedia.
The D/L method works using the notion that teams have two resources with which to make as
many runs as they can - these are the number of overs they have still to receive and the
number of wickets they have in hand. From any stage in their innings, their further run-scoring
capability depends on both these two resources in combination. Full details of the formulae
used are in The Professional Edition of the Duckworth-Lewis method. A DL calculator is
available here and here. There is also a Duckworth-Lewis Calculator For Cricket-Savvy
Android Users available here. However, all calculations can easily be performed using nothing
more than a single table of numbers and a pocket calculator.
Dr Frank Duckworth, MBE
In their book The
Hidden
Mathematics of
Sport, Rob
Eastaway and John
Haigh take ‘a
unique and
fascinating look at
sport, by exploring
the mathematics
behind the action.
You’ll discover the
best tactics for
taking a penalty, the
pros and cons of
being a consistent
golfer, the surprising
connection between
American Football
and Cricket’ and
much more.
Read a taster in
Born December 26, 1939 in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, Frank Duckworth studied physics
(BSc Hons 1961) and metallurgy (PhD 1965) at the University of Liverpool. Prior to his
retirement, he worked as a mathematical scientist for the nuclear power industry. He is a
consultant statistician to the International Cricket Council, and the editor of the Royal Statistical
Society's monthly news magazine, RSS News. Until 2010 he also served on the editorial board
of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association magazine
Significance. In 2004 he delivered the RSS Schools Lecture, entitled Lies and Statistics.
Dr Duckworth is also known for developing a system of quantifying personal risk perception,
now known as the "Duckworth scale". ‘The scale which is logarithmic, like the Richter scale for
earthquakes, grades one's risk of death from activities ranging from washing up to playing
Russian Roulette. It starts at zero for living on planet earth for a year, to a maximum of eight
for certain death (by playing Russian Roulette with six bullets or jumping off the Eiffel
Tower).’ (The Sum) Read more here and here.
Anthony Lewis, MBE
Tony Lewis received degrees in mathematics and statistics from Sheffield University in the
1960s. He was a lecturer in quantitative research methods 1999-2008 at Oxford Brookes
University. Prior to that he lectured at Leicester Polytechnic, Edith Cowan University (Western
Australia) and the University of the West of England where the Duckworth-Lewis method
originated from an undergraduate final-year project. He also spent periods of time in industry
to gain valuable experience of applying mathematics and statistics to practical problems.
Tony Lewis is also a former chairman of the Western Operational Research Society. He was
a keynote speaker at the Second IMA International Conference on Mathematics in Sport in
2009, where he talked about ‘experiences gained from trying to persuade the adoption of a
mathematically based method into a world, although used to summary statistics, is generally
mathematically challenged’. Read Tony Lewis’s account of how the D/L method came about
here.
Read about the book Duckworth Lewis: The Method and the Men Behind It here and here.
Year Six
Resources
To fit in with this month’s Mathematics in Sport theme, and with thanks to the
Millennium Mathematics Project for providing these links and information, we are
recommending activities designed by the NRICH website to develop mathematical
thinking and problem-solving skills for, and to be accessible to primary school pupils
at Key Stage 2. The link from each activity takes you to the NRICH site where
printable pages, teachers notes, hints and solutions to each problems are provided.
‘Maths and Sport: Countdown to the Games’ is an exciting new project developing
online resources exploring mathematics through the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games.
Swimming pool
We're investigating the number of steps we would climb up or down to
get out of or into the swimming pool. How could you number the steps
below the water? This activity uses the familiar environment of a
swimming pool to introduce negative numbers. Resources here
Match the matches
Decide which charts and graphs represent the number of goals two
football teams scored in fifteen matches. This data handling activity is
designed to get children talking meaningfully about mathematics,
presenting and justifying arguments. Resources here
Sports Equipment
Different sports such as hockey, football, basketball and tennis use balls
of different sizes. If you arrange a selection of balls in a line each
touching the next, can you work out what arrangement gives the shortest
line? This activity offers opportunities for creative thinking and problem
solving and helps pupils to understand the properties of circles.
Resources here
Jumping
After training hard, Ben and Mia have improved their performance in the
long jump and high jump. Can you work out the length and height of their
original jumps? This activity explores multiplication, divisions and
fractions in the context of sports training. Resources here
Half time
What could the half-time scores have been in these Olympic hockey
matches? This activity encourages systematic working and discussion.
Resources here