Mathematics and Sports

This 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 university-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 American football includes an article that evaluates a method for reducing the advantage of the winner to 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 metres; 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 modelling Tiger Woods’ career.