Kerry Whisnant, an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan and professor of physics at Iowa State University, may be on to something that will greatly impact team winning percentages. Mathematical models that he and other fanatic baseball statisticians have helped produce may accurately predict teams’ successes. Whisnant and other members of the Society for American Baseball Research have analyzed baseball statistics, creating new theories about team success. The researchers’ work has implications for the future of the sport’s season predictability.
Author: loganj
Finding Lost Things…Big Lost Things
In 1966, a mid-air collision between a USAF B-52 bomber and an air refueling tanker off the coast of Spain caused more damage than the destroyed aircraft. The bomber carried four atomic bombs. Three were recovered soon afterward on land, but the fourth was nowhere to be found, and presumed to be at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Intelligence officers convened a group of top mathematicians to predict the landing position of the bomb. The mathematicians placed bets based on their calculations. Then, using Bayesian predictability analysis, the group pinpointed the most-likely positions the bomb could be found. Using the odds they created to assign probability quotients to several key locations, the mathematicians mapped the most probable spots where they believed the bomb would be found, choosing one ravine in particular. A deep sea search discovered the bomb resting in the very ravine where the mathematicians’ calculations predicted it would be.
Is Math the Key to Curing Cancer?
Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has noticed patterns in the way cancer spreads. He is advocating a higher degree of mathematical study for researchers who are delving into the disease. He argues that by taking a quantative approach, oncologists can create and analyze equations that may model the growth of tumors, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body and their resistance to treatment therapies.
You Can Do It!
Anyone who has spent time trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube knows it can be frustrating. (How quickly you can turn order into chaos, never to return to order….) But with a little help from the makers of the cube, you might learn to do it. And quickly impress your friends.
A new web site celebrating the Rubik’s Cube’s 30th anniversary offers "secrets" to solving the puzzle. Take a look, and your trophy shelf may soon proudly display that long-unsolved puzzle you’ve had, fully restored to its original six-color-sided glory.
Building a Better Bridge
For centuries, we humans have been building big bridges. And just when we thought we had the science and math figured out to span waterways most efficiently, we may be in for some new discoveries.
Matthew Gilbert, a structural engineer in the United Kingdom, with his team of researchers, has developed a numerical optimization program that could help us build large suspension bridges even more effectively. Read more from Science.