What Makes a Team's Winning Percentage Deviate from the Pythagorean Relationship? *
| Difficulty | |
| Time Required | Average (6-10 days) |
| Prerequisites | Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel and statistics |
| Material Availability | Readily Available |
| Cost | Very Low (under $20) |
*Note: This is an abbreviated Project Idea, without notes to start your background research, a specific list of materials, or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated Project Ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a Project Idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk.
Abstract
What makes a winning team? Getting all the best players? Good coaches? Good chemistry? This project will show you how you can use math to help you test your hypothesis about what makes a winning team.
The Pythagorean relationship is a fundamental one in sports: it correctly predicts the records of 98% of all teams. But in 2% of cases, it fails. Why does it fail? Find teams that deviated substantially from their expected Pythagorean record (this information is available for baseball teams on www.baseball-reference.com. Then look at their situational statistics (this information is available on ESPN.com) and determine what they did that resulted in more or fewer wins than they otherwise should have had. Determine what the teams have in common.
Credits
Gabriel Desjardins
Cite This Page
MLA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
"What Makes a Team's Winning Percentage Deviate from the Pythagorean Relationship?"
Science Buddies.
Science Buddies, 28 July 2017.
Web. 25 Sep. 2017
<https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Math_p005/pure-mathematics/team-winning-percentage-pythagorean-theorem>
APA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
(2017, July 28).
What Makes a Team's Winning Percentage Deviate from the Pythagorean Relationship?.
Retrieved September 25, 2017
from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Math_p005/pure-mathematics/team-winning-percentage-pythagorean-theorem
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Last edit date: 2017-07-28
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