Application of Mathematics in Sports and Hobby

Each of us are enjoying things that we love to do specially if it is our sports or hobby, no matter how difficult it is or how expensive it is, if we love what we’re doing, we enjoyed it.

Think of your favorite sports or hobby and relate it in Mathematics, can you see the connection?

How can you connect or apply Mathematics in your daily activities and what is the role of mathematics in the things that you do?

This is a question that students have been asking mathematics teachers for years. Although answers such as "It will increase your problem-solving skills" or "You'll need it in college" may be true, such responses fail to motivate most students. Wouldn't you like to show students how the math they are learning will benefit them on a personal level? Now you can. This blog will help students answering the question, "When am I ever going to use this?"

This site contains activities or problem situations taken from real-life, with real data. Some examples of the situations are: hobbies, sports, cell phone plans, cooking, borrowing money, credit cards, music downloads, etc. As students work through the problems, they can use the math skills and concepts they have learned in their math curriculum (such as the concept of average or graphing), and apply those to a situation from real-life. Each activity-lesson in this site contains several questions about the situation, starting with basics and going into more in-depth evaluations. It will motivate the students far more than dull, boring word problems from the textbook. It will show students how mathematics is truly USEFUL. Also, these activities are excellent to be used in small-group setting. Typically, the activities contain challenging parts and therefore allow students to practice real problem solving – not just apply knowledge from textbook examples to other almost identical problems.

 Students might say they use fractions, decimals, or percentage and so on in their favorite sports or hobby. Students should describe the relationship between the sports or hobby and the mathematical term. For example, if the hobby is sewing, fractions are used to measure the amount of cloth needed; if the sport is baseball, players batting averages are figured as decimals.

For example:

At the 50 yard line, a football team is penalized 10 yards. Where will the team begin the next down? (50 yards – 10 yards = 40 yards)

A recipe for brownies calls for 1 ¼ cups of flour, how much flour is needed to make a double batch of brownies? (1 ¼ cups x 2 = 2 ½ cups)

Here are some activities for Mathematics related to Sports and Hobby:

Activity Title	Mathematical Objectives
Baking Cakes: Multiplying Fractions	Multiply a whole number by a fraction Multiply two fractions Convert improper fractions into mixed numbers Add two fractions
Children Making Money: Working with Fractions	Create ratios Simplify fractions Compare two fractions and determine which is largest
Cooking in the Kitchen: Multiplying Fractions	Multiply and divide fractions Change units of measure through dimensional analysis
Cooking in the Kitchen #2: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions	Multiply and divide fractions Change units of measure through dimensional analysis
Counting Candy: Using Pie Charts	Create a pie chart to represent a data set Use a fraction to represent the shaded portion of a pie chart Convert a fraction to a percent Simplify a fraction
Measuring Milk: Changing Units of Measure	Change units of measure through dimensional analysis Multiply fractions Write improper fractions as mixed numbers
Pieces of Chocolate: Adding and Subtracting Fractions	Write a fraction that represents the shaded portion of a region Shade the portion of a figure that is represented by a fraction Add and subtract fractions with different denominators Write improper fractions as mixed numbers
Shopping the Sale: Using Percent	Convert percent into decimals and vice versa Increase numbers by a constant percentage Solve linear equations Use ratios to find percent
The Cost of Homemade Bread: Working with Fractions, Decimals, and Units	Multiply two fractions Convert fractions to decimals Change units of measure using dimensional analysis

HAPPY SOLVING EVERYBODY!!!