When you hear the words March Madness, you immediately think of Road to the Final Four. Now when you hear Math Madness, hopefully you will think of Road to the Final Choice.
I always tell my students that math is everywhere. You can even find math while filling out your brackets and enjoying college basketball. While choosing winning teams for each round, you may ask yourself some questions that only math can help you answer.
On Thursday, March 19th, 2009, there were 64 teams that were competing for the N.C.A.A. Men’s Championship. My first math question is an easy one – what is the probability that the team you chose to win it all, will actually win. The answer is “1 out of 64” or 1.56%. Now for a little harder question – what is the probability of picking all of the teams in the Final Four? Will it be less than or greater than 1.56%?
For those of you students that enjoy colors, can you calculate the probability that a team with your favorite color will become the champions? Let me tell you about my friend, Sue. She knew very little about college basketball and the many different teams that were playing in the 1983 season. Sue decided to choose the winner of each game by the color of the uniform that she preferred between the two opponents. Many of her decisions were based on her favorite color – Red! How successful was the color red? The Final Four teams were the University of Houston, N.C State University, the University of Georgia and University of Louisville. All four teams wear RED.
Each team in college basketball is typically represented by two colors. For example, the University of North Carolina, wears Light Blue and White and the University of Missouri's colors are Black and Yellow. What is the probability that out of the Sixty-Four teams that started on the 2009 Road to the Final Four wears Green & White - like the Michigan State Spartans or Navy Blue & Yellow - like the University of Pittsburgh?
A different kind of math involves working with the power of two or multiplying by two. I have many students that need a calculator to figure out “2 to the 6th power.” The bracket can help with this problem. If you are a big fan of March Madness, then you know that a team needs to win six games to be crowned the N.C.A.A. Champion. So 2 to the 6th power equals 64! Now that you have read some of my ideas, can you think of any Math (March) Madness questions? If so send them to me – see contact information below.
If you couldn't guess -
my pick for the 2009 Men's Basketball Champion is University of North Carolina Tarheels!