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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.
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Statisticians use the power of math and probability theory to answer questions that affect the lives of millions of people. They tell educators which teaching method works best, tell policy-makers what levels of pesticides are acceptable in fresh fruit, tell doctors which treatment works best, and tell builders which type of paint is the most durable. They are employed in virtually every type of industry imaginable, from engineering, manufacturing, and medicine to animal science, food…
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Life is full of risks to both people and property. Actuaries predict the chances that future negative events will occur in a person's life, and then think of ways to reduce those chances, or reduce the impact of those negative events. Actuaries help bring peace of mind to both families and to businesses.
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General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.
MLA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
"What Makes a Team's Winning Percentage Deviate from the Pythagorean Relationship?" Science Buddies,
20 Nov. 2020,
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Math_p005/pure-mathematics/team-winning-percentage-pythagorean-theorem.
Accessed 7 June 2023.
APA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
(2020, November 20).
What Makes a Team's Winning Percentage Deviate from the Pythagorean Relationship?
Retrieved from
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Math_p005/pure-mathematics/team-winning-percentage-pythagorean-theorem
