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Billy Beane: Lives of the Mathematical Ninja
Unusually for a Mathematical Ninja, Billy Beane isn’t a mathematician. Nor is he dead. He’s a baseball manager. Now, I don’t know one end of a baseball stick from another, so this will be strewn with...
View ArticleLast-ditch begging: sponsor me. Please?
Hey! By the time this goes live, I’ll be in Germany, making final preparations to run the 40th BMW Berlin Marathon. I’ve been in training for the last six months, and who knows? Maybe I’ll make it all...
View ArticleScheduling a Scrabble tournament
Once upon a time, there was a Scrabble tournament. Sixteen of the county’s greatest Scrabbleologists descended on the venue… only to find the organiser had lost the fixture list. What the organise...
View ArticleSam Warburton’s Dilemma
There are six minutes to play in the last Autumn international, and Australia are leading Wales by 30 points to 26. Australia, however, have just conceded a penalty in front of the posts, leaving the...
View ArticleBBC Sport’s anti-smartness bias
“[James McEvoy] is an unashamed geek – he was reading a book on physics, as you do, to see if it could improve his performance.” – Radio 5 swimming commentator “You need some kind of accountancy...
View ArticleProbability and prediction
A reader asks: Is it easier to predict every game in the first round of a tournament1, or to pick the eventual winner? There’s a competition run by Sky, which is free to enter; you win £250,000 if you...
View ArticleHow big a lead can a football team have?
A reader asks: What’s the biggest lead a football team can have in the table after $n$ games? In a typical football league, teams get three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for getting beat....
View ArticleSport, maths, twitter and hulk-smashing (a rant)
My dear readers, it is not often I become angry. Rage is not an emotion that frequently troubles Flying Colours Towers. A sharp word for a student who is trying to wind me up, perhaps once in a while,...
View ArticleAn ex-Formula 1 driver asks… why does nobody ever ask me my opinion?
Former Formula 1 driver @MBrundleF1 asks: These election opinion polls. I've never been approached, nor has anybody I know, about a poll on anything whatsoever. Who are these people? — Martin Brundle...
View ArticleA tennis puzzle
A puzzle that occurred to me watching Wimbledon this week: A tennis match goes to five sets. The number of games one of the players wins in each set forms an arithmetic series. Given that the two...
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Review: The Numbers Game, by Chris Anderson and David Sally
“‘The book that could change football for ever’ — The Times,” screams the garish orange front cover. Noted football experts Malcolm Gladwell and Billy Beane shower it with praise. Apparently everything...
View ArticleAsk Uncle Colin: Expected goals
Dear Uncle Colin, What on earth is “expected goals” and why is it supposed to be useful? – Just Enjoy Football FFS Hello, JEFF, and thanks for your message! The first part of your question is simple,...
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