Measurement & else

We are facing an electoral panorama very uncertain and, in turn, numerous since there are several elections around the corner. To help voters get an idea about what the Spanish population thinks, surveys are carried out and graphic representations are formed from that. In order words,  statistics are essential in the electoral process . For instance, this is the last survey that collect the voting intenention and what political party will be voted by Spanish citizens. Statistics has been always present in the election period and to illustrate this reality, I would like to expose some significant data collected from the election results from the last decades. The average participation has been 73.79% since 1977, while the year 1982 was the year with the highest participation ( 79.97% ) and on the contrary it was the year 2016 when fewer Spanish people went to vote at the the polls on election day ( 66.48% ) Moreover, the PSOE was the political party with more seats...

As it was explained in the previous entry, "CURIOUS NBA STATISTICS",  statistics is "a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data". The application of statistical procedures dates back to the year 3050 before Christ , when a register of population and wealth was carried out in Egypt in order to prepare the construction of the pyramids. Later, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans also carried out some censuses with tributary, social and military purposes, and much later, in the sixteenth century, statistical inventories were published in Germany, Italy and France. Although initially the statistics arises from the elaboration of censuses, its application is currently extended to numerous fields, such as agriculture, biology, politics, psychology, education and so on. However, there are many people who for lack of critical sense of a statistical nature are very easily impressed by surpris...

Few people will be able to say that they have resisted the temptation to try their luck in the world of game of chance, but what is the probability of winning? Spanish lottery players could program their bets based on the probabilities, but to achieve this purpose, they would have to analyse the indices of each of the existing draws. From highest to lowest, the probabilities of having more luck and therefore to win the different types of lottery, which there are in Spain, are the following ones: Christmas national lottery 1 of every 100000 National lottery 1 of every 600000 The pool (La quiniela) 1 of every 4.782.969 The lottery (La primitiva) 1 of every 15.000.000 The Gordo de la Primitiva  1 of every 31.625.100 The Euromillion 1 of every 76.275.360 As we can see, it is very unlikely that we will be graced with the final prize. However, there is a series of numbers that repeat with some continuity. They are: the number 40 (21,15 %), 8 (18,27%)...

According to Merriam-Webster website, statistics is "a branch of mathematics dealing with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data" Statistics sorround us and we can find statistical data in mathematics, geography, media and among them, sports. Statistical data are really useful in sports to determine possible results, to know players´ performance, how a team has evolved along the season or to give a specific prize to a player. As I am a big fan of NBA , I would like to expose some statistical data that maybe makes you feel the enthusiasm that I have towards this sport. The Bill Russell´s Celtics in the 60s, the Showtime Lakers in the 80s or the Michael´s Jordan Bulls in the 90s are in the sanctuary of the best dynasties in the history of the NBA for their successes and their colorful game, two characteristics that make the teams that treasure them almost invincible. Moreover, in that situation, we can find the Golden St...

Imagine you are in a game show, the game show host shows you three doors. Behind one of them is the star prize, which is a wonderful car. However, behind the other two doors are booby prizes, two donkies. What door would you choose? You have no way of knowing which door has which item and depending on the door you choose, you will receive the item behind it. You are asked to pick a door, but before it is opened the show host will open one of the other two doors. The host knows where the car is and she/he will open a door to reveal a donkey. You are then asked if you would like to swap your choosen door for one of the twor remaining closed doors. The questions are: " Should you swap? " or " Should you stick with the original choice? " or " Will not it suppose any difference what you do? "  Which will it give you the greatest chance of winning the car? The Monty Hall problem is about probability and the problem is simple to understand, but t...

Sometimes, mathematics can be difficult to understand by students due to the complexity of it, and also this problematic can be presented in the concept of measurement. For this reason, I would like to expose three useful and playful activities that can deal with this situation. 1. MEASUREMENT LADDER The concept of metric unit change is a problematic issue for students because they are not aware of what the process itself supposed. As a result of this, they are not able to identify when a multiplication or division is involved in the metric unit change process. MEASUREMENT LADDER is a playful technique that is oriented to solve this problematic issue. The simile of a ladder will be used to explain the jump from one unit of length (mass or capacity) to another. So, when we would go up from meters to kilometers we have to divide by 10 for each step we climb and on the other hand, when we would go down, we carry out the same process but multiplying by 10. To make even mo...

Does it exist any connection between mathematics and music?, and if so, how does it affect us? As surreal as it turns out, the relationship exists. To understand it, we have to go back to ancient Greece, specifically Pythagoras. He was who discovered the importance of numbers in music and the relationship between this discipline and mathematics. The word mathematics comes from the Greek word μάθημα, which means "knowledge". Pythagoras and his followers divided this science into four areas: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and MUSIC . For this reason, we could affirm that the Pythagorean philosophers were the ones who laid the foundations of our current music. Nowadays, mathematics has to do even more with acoustics than with composition and the use of mathematics in composition is historically limited to the simplest operations of measuring and counting. As a result of that, we could affirm that we feel emotions and feelings through songs because of...