Month: February 2011
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One person’s $100 Super Bowl Pick Pack
(note: that does not imply that he’s picking the Pack.) Based on our discussion on Friday’s Super Bowl prop bet post , we thought a fun, and possibly marginally educational, activity would be to let students (and teachers!) have $100 of “money” to bet on the myriad of Super Bowl odds, with justification. Here’s a…
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The Super Bowl is 100/1 odds to be in the 71+ point range; is that a good bet?
ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons and fellow sports gambling addict Cousin Sal had their annual Super Bowl prop bets podcast where they discussed the best gambling deals of this Sunday’s Super Bowl (if gambling were legal, *ahem*). Aside: if you haven’t checked out the list of potential bets for the Super Bowl, you should (how long…
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Friday Happy Hour: Balance, how does it work?
So my kids have this game called “Balance“. It’s basically like a Noah’s Ark version of Jenga, and it’s for ages three and up. It’s generally a two-player game. The game play goes like this: Player A: Place an animal on the boat. Player B: Place an animal on the boat. The game ends when…
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Pythagoras and Pele; Gooooooooooooaaaaaaaa… (to be continued)
…ooooaaaaalllll! There’s about a hundred different ways you could use the following artifacts to construct a lesson around Pythagorean’s Theorem. So I’ll just toss out all the artifacts and let you, esteemed teacher, take it from there. I’d love to get feedback and suggestions on how to implement these materials in the comments below. Artifacts…
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This is the strangest x-axis I have ever seen (update: not really that strange at all)
Update 1: Anonymous points out that it says log scale right under the graph. Yep. That’s it right there. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I need an editor. Thanks anon. So it’s actually not strange, but rather perfectly logical. It’s also Friday. Oh well. Still, there’s got to be something we…
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Pythagoras and the Pyrenees ; Performance Enhancing Math
This image and its ilk bothers me to no end. This is a profile of the 9th stage of the Tour de France*. (image adapted from letour.fr) So I had this simple little post in mind about the Tour de France and biking and elevation and distance and it would wrap up neatly into a…
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‘Groundhog Day:’ How long has Bill Murray been in Punxsutawney? (Part 2)
Our celebration of Groundhog Day and Groundhog Day continues with our second question about Phil and his time spent in Punsutawney. Artifact This scene from Groundhog Day. Guiding Questions How long has Bill Murray (“Phil”) been practicing throwing cards into a hat? Has Phil spent more time throwing cards into a hat than you’ve spent…
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‘Groundhog Day’ “I’m a god” scene solution
Here’s my attempt at a solution to the previous post on Groundhog Day. In order for Bill Murray (“Phil”) to convince Rita and allow for Rita’s peppering of questions, we have to assume that Phil knows everyone in the restaurant. It’s tough to get a beat on the number of people in the restaurant, but it’s a…
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‘Groundhog Day:’ How long has Bill Murray been in Punxsutawney? (Part 1)
Happy Groundhog Day everyone! Brief synopsis of Groundhog Day in case you didn’t know: Bill Murray is trapped in the same, repeating day in perpetuity. How long Murray has been trapped is a question that has plagued mankind since the early 1990’s. It’s never directly addressed in the movie, it’s just hinted that it’s a…
emergent math 