MATH 303
Mathematics of (Mostly Olympic) Sport
Otherwise known as: “Mathematical Journeys III”

INSTRUCTOR:	John Stockie Office: K 10518 Phone: 778-782-3553 E-mail: jstockie  [at]  sfu.ca This page: http://www.sfu.ca/~jstockie/teaching/math303/
CANVAS PAGE:	All course materials are here
CLASS TIMES:	Monday      10:30-11:20, AQ 3003 Thursday    10:30-12:20, AQ 3154 Note: Lectures are in-person -- no video recordings will be provided.
MY OFFICE HOUR:	Thursday    2:00-3:00
TUTORIAL:	Your TA is Mahdi Salehzadeh (msa272 [at] sfu.ca) who will run the weekly tutorials: Tuesday (D101)    12:30-13:20    BLU 10921 Tuesday (D102)    13:30-14:20    AQ 5007 Mahdi will also hold regular office hours on Monday                 13:30-14:20    [math west] [math west] is located below Starbucks in the West Mall (WMC 2800). Mahdi will be in the main hallway (called the "Community Zone"), sitting at the north-most table with a "Reserved" sign.
PREREQUISITES:	MATH 152 or 155 or 158; MATH 232 or MATH 240. MACM 202 or 203 or 204 is recommended (or equivalent computing experience).
RECOMMENDED READING:	There is no textbook required for this course. However, there is one inexpensive book that I am recommending is worth purchasing: The Hidden Mathematics of Sport, by Rob Eastaway and John Haigh (Portico Books, 2021).     [Amazon] This book is easy reading compared to the usual math textbook since it's mostly equation-free, except for a short appendix. It consists of short chapters that each focus on quantitative aspects of a single sport without getting into the details. Lectures will dive into these mathematical aspects in more depth, based mostly on material from the following 3 books that are held on reserve in the SFU Library: Figuring Sport, by G. Cohen and N. de Mestre (MathSport & ANZIAM, 2007). The Mathematics of Projectiles in Sport, by N. de Mestre (Cambridge University Press, 1990). Mathematics and Sport, by L.E. Sadovskii and A.L. Sadovskii (American Mathematical Society, 1993).
HOMEWORK:	Homework assignments will be due roughly every two weeks on Thursdays at 10:30am. You must submit your homework assignment in the box labelled "MATH 303" outside room AQ 4135 (ground level, south hallway). DO NOT hand your assignments to me in class. Late assignments are assigned a mark of zero, no exceptions.    ** To account for any unforseen circumstances that might cause you to be late or miss an assignment, I will drop your lowest homework grade **

OUTLINE:

This course studies applications of mathematics to sport, with an emphasis on Olympic sporting events. Lectures are organized around "modules", each of which focuses on questions related to a particular sport or a common theme that underlies several sports. Examples include: Who really won the 2016 Summer (or 2018 Winter) Olympics? What are the limits of human performance? And will women ever outperform men? Who is the fastest person on the planet? Is there an optimal technique for throwing a discus/javelin/shot? Is the judging system in figure skating a fair one? Does the Olympic triathlon penalize strong swimmers? Is there really a "home ice advantage" in a Stanley Cup playoff series? What is the optimal rower configuration in the rowing fours and eights? These and other questions will be tackled using a variety of mathematical techniques, including calculus, linear algebra, probability, statistics, and game theory. Examples will be illustrated in class using software packages such as Microsoft Excel, Matlab and Maple, and the code will be distributed to students for their own experimentation.

MARKING SCHEME:

Homework:   30% (bi-weekly, best 4 out of 5) Midterm Test:   30% (in class, Oct 27) Group Project:    40% (Dec 1: poster presentations, Dec 5: written project due)