User:UnaVuckovic/Homework 12
Generally people only think of calculus as a subject in school. In reality, they are just oblivious to the fact that calculus is common in daily life. When you pay your monthly bills, buy a car, and even follow a recipe, you are using the basic principles of calculus. For example how would you play a friendly game of basketball when you don’t know how to keep score? Most people wouldn’t associate sports and math, but they are actually very closely related.
In the Olympics, statistics are used in order to determine which country is in the lead. If you take a look at the table below, you will see the overall Olympic medals table for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. As you may notice, Canada is in the third position even though it has received the most gold medals. This is because the medals are valued by quantity not by quality, resulting in the value of the gold, silver and bronze medals even. Hence the United States is in first position with an overall total of 37 medals, following Germany with 30 medals, then Canada in third place with 26 medals.
Without the knowledge of math, these statistics would be impossible to create. For instance in baseball you have to use statistics to determine a player’s batting average. A batting average represents the percentage of bats that result in hits for particular baseball players. The formula is:
Hits/ Bats = Batting average
For example:
Bob and Steve are baseball players. Last month, Bob got 195 hits out of 535 bats while Steve got 97 hits in 113 bats. Determine the batting average for both players. Which player has a better average?
Bob:
= 195 hits/ 535 bats
= 195/535
= 0.364
Steve:
= 97 hits/ 113 bats
= 97/113
= 0.858
NOTE: Notice that batting averages are NOT represented as percentages. They are represented as decimal numbers to three decimal places.
To clarify, a batting average of 1.000 means that the player gets a hit at every bat, while a batting average of 0.000 means that the player has no hits.
With this information, it is clear that Steve has the better batting average.
Although it would be impossible to determine batting averages without math, there are plenty of other uses for calculus in sports besides statistics.
The use of angles is vital in every single sport. In basketball, a player must know his/her spot where they most frequently get the ball in the hoop, and remember where that spot is on the court. In soccer, goaltenders use angles to reduce the amount of net that a player has to shoot at, therefore increasing his/her chances of saving the shot. Angles are used in various other sports such as golf, bobsled, water polo, hockey etc.
For instance, when a punter kicks a football, he can control three factors: - The velocity and/or speed of the kick
- The angle of the kick
- The rotation of the football
These three factors are crucial because they will determine how high and far the ball will go, the direction of the football and whether the kick will reach its desired location.
It is no coincidence that this action represents a parabolic function. This path is always curved because the force of gravity affects the movement of the ball in an upward direction.
Since the language of math is numbers,it can help us make important decisions and perform everyday tasks. In sports it determines the country in first place at the Olympics, teaches athletes how to use angles and has hundreds of other essential uses.