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The link above has a breakdown of American age groups that believe in Zombies. Americans that believe in an Apocalypse of some sort, including an alien invasion is fascinating. See Vox Poll here.
In the article ‘Why Some Olympic Swimmers think about math in the pool’ in the NYT today
Kate Douglas (above), statistics graduate and USA Olympic swimmer, has used an accelerometer on her back, which measures her movement in 3 spatial directions 512 times per sec, to see where she could reduce drag and improve her swimming times. Could she improve her stroke technique, kick style or the depth she dipped her head under water?
By analysing the data she found she could reduce drag by changing the angle of how she pulled her head out of the water saving 0.15 sec per pullout.
In her research paper, Douglas wrote: “Force applied in any direction other than forward is not helping an athlete achieve their dream of Olympic gold.”
Douglas lifts her head out of the water 20 times per lap. The 200m breaststroke race (above) involves 4 laps so Douglas lifts her head 80 times.
Of course, other swimmers could do likewise, but in the Olympic trials (above) Douglas won by 1.35 secs. Every 0.01 sec counts.
According to the NYT ‘Kyle Chalmers, the Australian sprinter who is a three-time Olympian has partnered with a Sydney-based sports technology lab that created a device to measure the force generated by a swimmer’s hands as they stroke through the water.’
So far this Olympics he has 1 silver medal in the 4 x 100m relay.
It’s almost summer in Australia. In Melbourne we’ve had floods, mosquito – mozzie- numbers surge and, last Wednesday, I nearly stood on a Tiger Snake that was escaping the floods near the Yarra River!
This post, however, is really a PR exercise for sharks. We fear them. We’re horrified by the thought of being eaten alive!!!. We only have to hear the soundtrack from JAWS to feel the fear. Then we see news footage like the attack below and think it happens all the time. Look at that fin. It’s enormous! But sharks are not THAT dangerous. We really need to look at the statistics to understand the level of threat. See below.
Why do we fear sharks? Look at the numbers. REALLY. Show your students. What about stairs??? Quad bikes? Chairs? Bees? That’s when you should feel the fear!!! We are irrational beings. This is why we need maths. We can make rational decisions using maths. There is also a safety message here. The maths speaks for itself. We won’t hammer it.
There is lots of maths you can do with these tables.
……..Population Data 2022:
……..Aust…26 million = 26 x 106
……..USA…332 million = 332 x 106
……..Canada…38 million = 38 x 106
……..UK…67 million = 67 x 106
But we’re doing this for the SHARKS!!! 
1. Quad Bike or ATV: In 2007, 107 children younger than 16 were killed on ATVs. 2. Cyclists 3. choke on vomit 4. Cats, cows, horses, pigs, raccoons. 5. Bees, wasps 6.PWC or Jet Ski 7. Lightning 8. Xmas tree fires 9. Snowboard 10. Venomous Spider 11. Scorpions 12. Venomous Snakes , lizards. 13.Crocs & gators 14. Shark 
Weight: 550 lb
Height: 8’ 2”
Top Speed: 35 mph = 51 ft/s
Weight: 1,500 lb
Height: 8’ 2”
Top Speed: 22 mph = 32 ft/s
Comparing these speeds to the fastest man on earth, Usain Bolt:
Top speed: 27 mph = 40 ft/s
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In fact, more Americans die each year from choking on their own vomit than are killed by bears.
More death stats here.
Nevertheless, bears are very fast. So you can see why Park Rangers offer the following advice:
More information at Mountain Nature.
The reason for waiting until the bear is 15 ft away is to make sure the spray doesn’t disperse in the air. If the Pepper Spray is too spread out it will not stop the bear.
Ref: Dog helps save hikers after grizzly chases them for 20 minutes.
This is mental maths, but not hard maths. You can play this video by Marco Frezza directly to the class.
Derren Brown is a UK mentalist, magician, hypnotist and maths guru. He’s awesome. He shows audiences how a lack of understanding maths, especially probability, leads to misinterpreting the facts.
Mentalist Derren Brown devises a foolproof gambling system. He sends a girl , Kadisha, the number of a winning horse in race to be run the next day. It wins. He sends her the winning horse and race number 4 more times. She ends up with winnings close to £ 1000 before the final race. Derren convinces her to borrow money for the last bet. She does. She places £4,000 on a horse. Did it win?????
………………………………………..Ben Zauzmer, a Harvard Applied Math graduate who has a 75 per cent success rate in predicting the winners of Oscar Awards every year, has correctly predicted 20 of 21 winners in 2018 Oscars, which is a success rate of 95%.
How does he do it? He gathers thousands of data points on Oscar ceremonies over the past two decades – such as categories movies are nominated in, other award results, and aggregate critic scores – and he uses statistics to calculate how good a predictor each of those metrics is in each Oscar category. Then, he plugs in the numbers and that gives him the % chance that each film will win in each category according to the Boston Globe.
Ben, who writes for The Hollywood Reporter, uses his mathematical model to produce Bar Graphs like this:
This year the Best Picture was a close call, but Ben’s Mathematical Prediciton was correct.
More deaths occur due to falling off chairs in Australia. Quad bikes are deadly anywhere.
Full Stats and references here.
Meanwhile, you see a shark fin. You can swim BUT what distance do you need to be from the shark to make it to the beach.
You will find some interesting maths here.
A raucous romp through the absurdities of American Gun Culture
10 Reasons Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons students hate maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons Why Students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons students Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 reasons to hate maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons to Hate Maths: BUSTED
10 Reasons to Hate Maths: BUSTED
Comic & cutting comment plus random raves.
Mathspig Blog 