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Math In SportsBy: Joseph Sciulara

Matthew Marketti

What do you know about math in sports?

Have you ever wondered if they use math in sports? They use math in a lot of sports. For example in baseball, math is used to find the batting average for the players. In football they need math. The reason is because they have to calculate the yards they get to the touchdown. In basketball they need math too. One of the ways they use math in basketball is because they have to find the average points a player scores a game. In bowling they use math to find how many points were scored in each frame.

Baseball

Your best friend's batting average is .250. Your sister's batting average is .333. What do these numbers mean, and how are they determined? A player's batting average (B) gives the percentage of hits the player makes when he is at bat. It is found by dividing the total number of hits made (h) by the total times at bat (a):B = h/aSo if Joe has 120 hits in the 300 times he is at bat, his batting average is .400 (120/300).

Math is also used in football. A football field is 100 yards long, and is marked every 10 yards by a line. The 50-yard line is in the center of the field, and it divides one team's side from the other. To calculate distance across the field, you simply calculate the distance on both sides of the 50-yard line. For example, if the football was kicked from the Cardinals' 25-yard line to the Raiders' 40-yard line, how long was the kick?

FOOTBALL

Math is also used for the wide receiver. The receiver who catches the pass is based on the number of passes thrown to him and the number of catches. This is also based on the number yards he runs after the catch and areas that he catches the passes. These numbers are all used to show how good the player is doing through out the season.

BasketballTo compare a player's performance from game to game, his/her field goal and free throw percents can be calculated at the end of each game. This can be done very simply by dividing the number of shots actually made (m) by the number of attempted shots (a)P = m / a Therefore, if Matt makes 9 out of 16 field goal attempts, his percentage is 56%.To find percentages, move the decimal point from your answer two places to the right, and round to the ones digit 9/16 = .5625 = 56.25%, which can be rounded to 56%.

BowlingThe score board for a bowling game has ten frames. During each frame, the player gets two tries to knock down all of the ten pins. The number knocked down is recorded. It is very simple to bowl. To find each players score of each frame, you add up each amount of pins that were knocked down on each try. When you knock down all of the pins, it is a strike which is ten points.

GAMES

Here are some exiting games to play. The first game will be a fill in the blank game. The questions are going to be based on what we learned through out this presentation. The second game is a word search. Hope you have fun=)

GAME 1

1. What is one of the most common sports that use

math?____________________

2. How can you find the batting average of a player

who hit the ball 80 times and got up to bat 150 times?

______________

3. Name the four sports we spoke about today?

______________

4. If steve scored 40 points in one game and 25 points

in the next, what is his average scoring per game?

____________________

5. What is Max’s score in bowling if he got a strike on

his first frame and knocked down 9 pins on his second

frame? __________

GAME 2

B A S E B A L L B F Y P L

G N H G S A T S A O D X A

H H J U Y H T E P O I N T

J O E M A T T T W T Z G I

W T H B A S K E T B A L L

A S D R V H K L K A L M S

A C Z E E S H C B L H G I

W G Y F R N B O W L I N G

D L G U Z T A P C N B K O

Q U T I G V L E R U N R K

F R A M E W L V D E H K L

S Q O I H F A S I T B S D

S G T U C H D O W N P H O

WORDS:BASEBALLFOOTBALLBOWLINGBASKETBALLAVERAGEBALLFRAMEPOINTTUCHDOWN

Bibliography

1.www.mathcats.com/attic/mathinsports.html2.www.mathworksheets.com