I love a good night out to the Casino; throwing money i don’t have, on a risky bet with nothing but high hopes of a win. Its an amazing feeling walking away from any game in the casino with a profit; Roulette however, is especially dramatic to come away with a win.

This is due to the higher risk taking within the game of Roulette than compared to blackjack or poker for example. There are several options while betting on a roulette table; Red or black/Even or Odd holds a 1/2 chance of a win, betting in one of the ’12th’ brackets holds a 12/37 chance and betting on any singular number hold a 1/37 chance of winning. The lower the probability of the win, the higher amount of money you could win back.

Therefore looking at the mathematical sides of the game it is very difficult to walk away with a big win on a singular number. Watching Derren Browns documentary ‘How to take down the casino’ opens my eyes to other mathematical concepts within gambling. He studied the speed, distance and time of the wheel spinning in attempt to calculate the point that the ball would stop.  Not only was the speed of the wheel important but also the speed of the ball needed to be mentally calculated within seconds. This seems virtually impossible to be done by any human being. He spends years doing mini practises in such like scenarios, such as, estimating the speed that a car is driving within a certain distance. I find this an incredible skill, as he gets them correct by testing his answer against a speed gun.

With all his practise, he finally puts the mathematics theory to the test by betting £5000 on a singular number in roulette. Looking back at the statistics, this holds a one in 37 chance of winning at random. As he used calculates the mathematics while the wheel is spinning, he has a split second to place his bet once the ball is spun. Unfortunately, he was one place off. However this still shows that the mathematics behind it provides a more logical bet than selecting a number at random. Knowing the theory to calculate is also important in itself, even if humans don’t always get it right. It is with this logic, that they have then been able to go on to invent machines that can calculate the answer every time. As we’ve already seen it used in speed detectors, this is an essential part of equipment used in society today.

Therefore, although using mathematical concepts while gambling increases your chances of winning it still cannot guarantee a win but worth a try? This discovery highlights that mathematics surrounds us, even in our social life, we are constantly thinking about the probability of something happening or what the chances that we have to win.

Science and maths are beginning to appear more and more within sport games.

Especially, the worlds most popular sport, football. Football is such a competitive sport and thousands of people rely on this as a career. The money factor of football increases the significant value and seriousness of the sport. Going from a range of manager’s jobs, professionals wages to the general public’s bets, millions of people rely of a games outcome. To heightening the probability of a win for a team, a manager would have to consider which players are better for certain positions in a team. To ensure which players are best for a particular team, they need to consider their strengths and weaknesses and how they could fit in the team persona. Using statistics drawn from previous matches played, we are able to see each players successful pass rate, speed/distance ran and shot conversion (and much, much more), therefore managers are able to identify the areas that need improved within their team and which players they can buy to help. Questions such as, how many corners were taken by each team? how many fouls have been given to each player? how many assists have players set up? and even a debate of who is the best player in the world? can all be settled or at least narrowed to a handful of players.

Statistics can also benefit football teams as they can provide a deeper understanding and evaluation of tactics and team performances of opposing teams. Using the data, diagrams, graphs and maps can be drawn up of how players use the pitch, as shown below.

This diagram shows the passes played by Manchester United across the pitch in one game.  Each line demonstrates the direction of the pass and the length presents how short  or long the shots were. The colours all how significant meaning also; Black shows that a pass is relatively common whereas white highlights less frequent passes and brown shows somewhere in between.

This data establishes that Manchester United use the wings of the pitch more often than straight through middle. This is a tactic that the opponent team would want to consider and be aware of to try                                                                                                     defeat them.

We can use these maps to compare the different tactics used by each team. The second map on the left displays Arsenals passing during a game. I find this a good contrast to Manchester United’s passing as we can clearly see that Arsenal use shorter, more precise passing and tend to focus passes in front of the box to create chances. This is just one of the ways that mathematics can be visualised to benefit the football industry.

Match of the Day is on sky sports every Sunday evaluating and analysing all these statistics for every game in the Premier League. As the professionals critical analyse and discuss each shot, pass and tackle made, this knowledge is then pass on to the wider society. With extra insight into players ability and team tactics, the gamblers in the public, can use this information to place logical bets on predicting pretty much any move of the game. A common bet could be prediction of which players receive a foul. For example, Sergio Aguero is known for being a bit more aggressive than other players, therefore, when he is playing, betters take this likelihood into account in order to win a profit.

As well as statistics supporting predictions and increasing performance of football, the physics of the sport is also a crucially important mathematical factor. I have seen many goals disallowed as the balls hits off the cross bar and spins bouncing outside the goal line.  An example of this is back in the 2010 World Cup game between England and Germany, where Frank Lampard’s shot struck against the cross bar and bounced half a metre behind the line. This raised question as to why the ball bounce outside the goal again rather than continuing into the back of the net? The University of Bath looked into the complex process of physics of why the ball spins out of the net. They studied the angle and speed at which the ball hits the crossbar and how much of a spin it put onto the ball. Experiments showed that the closer the ball was to the goal line while bouncing, the more spin it had, resulting in the ball bouncing the opposed way than expected. This is because of the horizontal velocity of the ball being reversed.  This is shown in the diagram below- red line demonstrating the ball bouncing closest to the line ending up bouncing back out the goal.

The University’s experiment also found that the surface of the ground made a difference to the spin of the ball.To read in more depth on the mathematical process of the physics of the ball- https://plus.maths.org/content/when-goal-not-goal 

This type of mathematics is seen in many other sports such as basketball, netball, baseball, cricket etc. This reiterates the great Importance that mathematics makes in the industry of sport and how it impacts on the wider society. After reading into the concepts of maths within football, I have became more aware of why a manager had played a certain player in a certain position or why the ball has spun out of the net and rather than just relying on technology to figure these statistics out, it all comes down to the mathematics behind it. I also feels that I would be able to use my knowledge of statistics to teach maths to children that find football interesting to engage them and demonstrate that mathematics is EVERYWHERE!

References

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/soccermatics-how-maths-will-change-your-understanding-football

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680/Huffman/Mathematics%20in%20Sports/MathematicsSports.html

Far too often I hear people associating maths as numbers and languages with words and speaking.  As I read into discovering maths more, I realise that this is not the case and it can have an impact on how children learn.

Liping Ma’s discovery has taught to be cautious about the words i use while teaching children maths, for example, expressing to decompose a fraction rather than borrow. this made sense to me as it provides a more visual image for the children to break down the fraction rather than steal a tens value. I then looked into other ways that maths can be used as a universal language. When children see the mathematical symbols (+,-,X,=) it is seen as an unfamiliar language that is not as straight forward as the spoken language, similarly to the way people who do not understand Chinese view their symbols.

“What seems to happen with many children is that they develop a completely separate way of thinking about the math they do at school, because it fails to integrate with their accomplished informal ‘home’ mathematical language” (Atkinson, 1998, pg 18)

This video by Randy Palisoc illustrates that maths being taught as a language is a lot more comprehend-able for children.

I like the idea of mathematics becoming more human, as i must admit, I once considered maths as the classic myth that it is solely for the ‘clever’ people.

“If the maths its self is not presented in a way that is meaningful to children, if it fails to make ‘human sense’, and if unfamiliar language is used, problems most inevitably arrive.” (Atkinson, 1998, pg 17).

I believe that teachers shouldn’t be afraid to use more language in teaching maths because it makes it more real for children while learning. By referring to the 4 principles of mathematics (Interconnectedness, basic ideas, multiple perspectives and longitudinal coherence) we can show children just how common maths is.

As a teacher it is essential to demonstrate the [inter]connectedness within every topic in maths. By taken children’s prior knowledge and displaying how it can support other mathematical problems, ill deepen their understanding and will eventually independent-learning as they begin to make links themselves. For example, knowledge about fractions and angles would be necessary to recognise how to complete trigonometry efficiently.

Through teaching Multiple perspectives within a topic provides flexibility for the children’s learning. I was definitely one of those children that needed something explained to me over and over again before i understood it. Approaching a question with an open mind to several ways of solving it, creates a less ‘scary’ ideological that there is only one correct answer in maths.

Teachers must have a profound understanding of the basic ideas within maths in order to reinforce these to the students. Basic ideas of maths can become reoccurring as children progress through mathematics, these can also be sufficient links for the children to make to develop their learning.

Longitudinal coherence is this idea of building blocks in maths. using prior knowledge we can then begin to extend their knowledge onto more complex situations. For example, once children have got to grips with multiplication and division of whole numbers, teachers can then develop their learning further by introducing fractions.

By appreciating these approaches, teachers can make teaching maths more efficient for children to master maths and avoid the false phenomenon that maths is too difficult for them.

References

Atkinson, S. (1998). Mathematics with reason. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Ma, L 2010, Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics : Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States, Taylor and Francis, Abingdon, Oxon. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.