Topical Applications of Mathematics

The Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching provide these resources, developed to emphasise the practical nature of mathematics and its application to real life situations.

Athletics Track - explores the mathematics required in the design of an athletics track.

World Championship for Test Cricket - develops an understanding of the mathematics used to produce the International Cricket Council league table.

Global Warming - students use graphs to model data and make predictions.

Easter Date - uses an algorithm to predict past and future dates for this holiday.

Fruit Machines - explores the probabilities of winning lines and the amounts paid out.

Reading Age Formula - apply different formulae to a selection of texts and consider accuracy of results.

Physical Fitness - uses Gallagher and Brouha Test to calculate fitness index.

National Lottery - explores the probability of choosing winning lines.

Penalty Shoot Out - a simulation which uses random numbers to generate results.

Braille - explores the patterns which form the code used by this system.

EAN Bar Codes - explains the structure, validation and reading of these codes.

Fair Trade - demonstrates the relationship between third world countries and the developed world.

Semaphore- students learn to interpret and code messages.

Carbon Footprint - explores the mathematics behind carbon footprint measurements.

Happy Planet Index - shows how mathematics can raise public awareness of issues.

Heptathlon - student use and apply formulae to convert athletes' results into points.

Old New Year - uses algorithm to establish the day for any given date.

Champions League - aimed at A level students and explores probability and combinations.

Popular Baby Names - illustrates the concepts and strategies for interpreting data.

Genetic Fingerprinting - explores the statistics used in this field.

Darts - investigates some of the mathematics found on a dart board.

Earthquakes - introduces logarithms and their application to the Richter Scale.

Rankings in Sport - students analyse results to compare average and weighted average scores.

Lorenz Cipher Machine - statistical analysis used to break codes during WWII.