MATHEMATICS AWARENESS MONTH
APRIL 2010

Mathematics and Sports

The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics announce that the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month, April 2010, is Mathematics and Sports.

Sports offers a multitude of instances involving data, strategies and chance, each of which is perfectly suited to mathematical analysis. Beyond the obvious uses of mathematics for things such as rating baseball players and football quarterbacks, mathematics is used to design the dimple patterns on golf balls and the composition of racing tires; it is used for scheduling tournaments and for ranking teams; and it is used to determine tactics and to predict the ultimate limits in sports records.

In the 1960s the ABC television network began a popular weekly series called "The Wide World of Sports" that spanned the globe to show the tremendous variety of sports. For 2010, the Joint Policy Board of Mathematics has chosen the theme "Mathematics and Sports" to highlight the intersection of the sports world with the wide world of mathematics—a universal language that is used to investigate problems ranging from the athletic to the cosmic.

The 2010 Mathematics Awareness web site has articles on baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, track and field, tennis, and car racing as well as videos and links to other resources.

See Resolution Expressing support for Mathematics Awareness Month H. RES. 1270, submitted by Mrs. McMorris Rodgers to 111th Congress 2D Session, on April 16, 2010.