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The Hidden Mathematics of Sport
This fascinating book explores the mathematics involved in all your favourite sports.
The Hidden Mathematics of Sport takes a unique and fascinating look at sport by exploring the mathematics behind the action. You'll discover the best tactics for taking a penalty, the pros and cons of being a consistent golfer, the surprising connection between American football and cricket, the quirky history of league tables, the unusual location of England's earliest 'football' matches and how to avoid marathon tennis matches. Whatever your sporting interests, from boxing to figure skating, from rugby to horse racing, you will find plenty to absorb and amuse you in this insightful book.
Word 35,000 words
The Hidden Mathematics of Sport takes a unique and fascinating look at sport by exploring the mathematics behind the action. You'll discover the best tactics for taking a penalty, the pros and cons of being a consistent golfer, the surprising connection between American football and cricket, the quirky history of league tables, the unusual location of England's earliest 'football' matches and how to avoid marathon tennis matches. Whatever your sporting interests, from boxing to figure skating, from rugby to horse racing, you will find plenty to absorb and amuse you in this insightful book.
Word 35,000 words
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2005
19 people are currently reading
84 people want to read
About the author
Rob Eastaway
47 books31 followersRobert Eastaway is an author who is active in the popularisation of mathematics. He is a former pupil of The King's School, Chester, England and has a degree in Engineering and Management Science from the University of Cambridge. He was President of the UK Mathematical Association for 2007/2008. Eastaway is a keen cricket player and was one of the originators of the International Rankings of Cricketers. He is also a former puzzle-writer for the New Scientist magazine and he has been involved in live mathematics shows on Virgin Radio (now Absolute Radio). He is the Director of Maths Inspiration, a national programme of maths lectures for teenagers which involves some of the UK’s leading maths speakers such as Simon Singh and Colin Wright.
Robert Eastaway's titles appear under the name "Rob Eastaway" in the UK and some other countries.
Robert Eastaway's titles appear under the name "Rob Eastaway" in the UK and some other countries.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 11, 2016
This is a book that contains the trivia you need to understand if you were to commentate on a British sport such as cricket or darts or snooker, with some football and tennis and golf mercifully thrown in. If you don’t have a guest on the show to tell you what he’d do if he was in the athlete’s shoes, or how things will pan out due to peculiarities of the rules, this book is an OK start, it will get you going.
That’s fine, but it’s masquerading as book about the hidden mathematics of sport, and that it ain’t. I hold an AB in Applied Math from Harvard, an MSc in Pure Maths from Imperial and another degree where some math was necessary, I use math at work about once every couple months (perhaps less often, but when I do it’s proper math of the kind that’s taught in grad school, not undergrad) so I know math when I see it and there’s barely any math in here.
Like, not by a long shot. What we have here is a string of dorky, pedantic observations of the kind that will get you in trouble with the fair sex, really.
It is not a very interesting mathematical property of number 11 that you can arrange the winners of the world cup as follows:
1962 Brazil
1966 ------- England
1970 -------------- Brazil
1974 --------------------- Germany
1978 ---------------------------- Argentina
1982 ------------------------------------ Italy
1986 ---------------------------- Argentina
1990 --------------------- Germany
1994 -------------- Brazil
1998 ------- France
2002 Brazil
This is an extreme, but typical example of how far the bottom of the barrel had to be scraped to put together this list of dorky, inconsequential facts.
Also, suppose that, like me, you don’t know the rules of Rugby or Cricket or Snooker. Well, you won’t find them here. You won’t find the rules that are relevant to the dorky, pedantic, not-mathematical-at-all observations, even. I’m not asking for a full rulebook here, I’m just begging for the necessary background to follow the argument.
Also, the one or two sports I know about the author gets WRONG. So the guy who came third in the 1950 F1 Championship was not called Luigi Fagiola. His name was Luigi Fagioli, with an i, OK? That’s the plural for the word “bean” in Italian. There’s a nice mathematical fact for you. And in the Eurovision Song Contest (another British sport), yes, Cyprus always awards us Greeks 12 points, but if the author had his facts down he would have noticed that we always award them 10. Why am I supposed to trust him when he describes the other sports I don’t know about?
“So why did you read it, then, Athan?” I hear you ask, and the answer is that it was assigned to the son of a friend of mine who is ten and attends (time to name and shame) Westminster School and I’ve offered to help junior out. Well, now I know why he does not like it; it’s unfathomably boring. I don’t like it either.
If he was told to read the book for PE, I’d be like “well, this is a bit premature, he’s probably not yet playing to the level where it matters that he follow the recommendations for when it’s best to do your best tennis serve and when your safe serve” but at least I would understand. But whoever had him read this for math is a dangerous charlatan.
That’s fine, but it’s masquerading as book about the hidden mathematics of sport, and that it ain’t. I hold an AB in Applied Math from Harvard, an MSc in Pure Maths from Imperial and another degree where some math was necessary, I use math at work about once every couple months (perhaps less often, but when I do it’s proper math of the kind that’s taught in grad school, not undergrad) so I know math when I see it and there’s barely any math in here.
Like, not by a long shot. What we have here is a string of dorky, pedantic observations of the kind that will get you in trouble with the fair sex, really.
It is not a very interesting mathematical property of number 11 that you can arrange the winners of the world cup as follows:
1962 Brazil
1966 ------- England
1970 -------------- Brazil
1974 --------------------- Germany
1978 ---------------------------- Argentina
1982 ------------------------------------ Italy
1986 ---------------------------- Argentina
1990 --------------------- Germany
1994 -------------- Brazil
1998 ------- France
2002 Brazil
This is an extreme, but typical example of how far the bottom of the barrel had to be scraped to put together this list of dorky, inconsequential facts.
Also, suppose that, like me, you don’t know the rules of Rugby or Cricket or Snooker. Well, you won’t find them here. You won’t find the rules that are relevant to the dorky, pedantic, not-mathematical-at-all observations, even. I’m not asking for a full rulebook here, I’m just begging for the necessary background to follow the argument.
Also, the one or two sports I know about the author gets WRONG. So the guy who came third in the 1950 F1 Championship was not called Luigi Fagiola. His name was Luigi Fagioli, with an i, OK? That’s the plural for the word “bean” in Italian. There’s a nice mathematical fact for you. And in the Eurovision Song Contest (another British sport), yes, Cyprus always awards us Greeks 12 points, but if the author had his facts down he would have noticed that we always award them 10. Why am I supposed to trust him when he describes the other sports I don’t know about?
“So why did you read it, then, Athan?” I hear you ask, and the answer is that it was assigned to the son of a friend of mine who is ten and attends (time to name and shame) Westminster School and I’ve offered to help junior out. Well, now I know why he does not like it; it’s unfathomably boring. I don’t like it either.
If he was told to read the book for PE, I’d be like “well, this is a bit premature, he’s probably not yet playing to the level where it matters that he follow the recommendations for when it’s best to do your best tennis serve and when your safe serve” but at least I would understand. But whoever had him read this for math is a dangerous charlatan.
June 22, 2013
Another interesting maths book - although, as I am not quite as fascinated by sport, I didn't engage with this as much as the other one of the author's books that I have read, Why Do Buses Come in Threes: The Hidden Mathematics of Everyday Life. I was pleased that an appendix was included to go into the maths in slightly more depth, as the book was very much a surface view.
I shall certainly try more books by Robert Eastaway and recommend his amusing and entertaining writing style.
I shall certainly try more books by Robert Eastaway and recommend his amusing and entertaining writing style.
November 14, 2018
Very interesting. Well written and an easy read.
April 9, 2025
Pretty good and insightful, but a few mistakes, and would have loved the maths to go further
June 24, 2025
Mostly really interesting details and facts...
October 3, 2014
If you like sport and have an interest in the statistics that seem to be produced for pretty much every major event and league then you can't really go wrong with this book. I personally have little interest in most sports, but I do have a mathematical background and that was enough to make the book enjoyable, so you don't necessarily need an interest in both sport and maths. The maths is dealt with in a straightforward manner for non-experts but an appendix gives more details if you want to understand more about the results that are given in the main body of the book.
The book covers all major sports that are played in the UK, as well as mentions of a few others. It's really a series of weakly related observations or notes about various mathematical patterns that are seen in sport. For example, some of the topics covered are:
-The shapes of balls
-Tactics for taking penalties in football
-Interpretation of the forward pass rule in rugby
-Subjective scoring in sports such as figure skating and boxing
-Record breaking
-The influence of winning a coin toss
-Where to aim at a dartboard
-Tactics for serving in tennis
-Angles in snooker
-Scoring systems in different sports and how they influence the results
-How to make sports more exciting
This is probably one of those slightly geeky books that won't appeal to everyone, but if maths and sport are your cup of tea to some extent then you will probably find something interesting here.
The book covers all major sports that are played in the UK, as well as mentions of a few others. It's really a series of weakly related observations or notes about various mathematical patterns that are seen in sport. For example, some of the topics covered are:
-The shapes of balls
-Tactics for taking penalties in football
-Interpretation of the forward pass rule in rugby
-Subjective scoring in sports such as figure skating and boxing
-Record breaking
-The influence of winning a coin toss
-Where to aim at a dartboard
-Tactics for serving in tennis
-Angles in snooker
-Scoring systems in different sports and how they influence the results
-How to make sports more exciting
This is probably one of those slightly geeky books that won't appeal to everyone, but if maths and sport are your cup of tea to some extent then you will probably find something interesting here.
January 10, 2016
Nice book, accessible with simple but relevant maths explained in the appendix. Nice sections on penalties (game theory and randomising strategies), tennis serving and the probabilities of streaks with some mechanics in on snooker balls or the design of a football. Also a nice argument for why steady play beats risk taking in golf. A few chapters in there seem to be just padding material but overall this is a concise and fun read.
October 11, 2013
Cracking read..the book that anyone with an enquiring mind who enjoys sport will enjoy. I liked the analysis of luck in coin-tossing, the lbw rule and the ridiculous judging systems in some sports. Well written at a good pace and leave the complex stuff in the appendix for those who want to see more.
November 16, 2021
Intriguing book for followers of sports that covers many interesting areas in which mathematics and probability play an important role. Rob writes about how luck, chance, referee errors or biases play a part in outcomes. Liked the parts about how scoring systems and rules have evolved. Also loved the tips on betting. Overall, a thoroughly readable book.
December 20, 2023
Great concept for a book, but didn't quite live up to my expectations. Can probably do a whole book on just the maths of medals at the Olympics. This is more about picking a particular sport and noting a few interesting statistical figures about it, rather than presenting mathematical concepts and how they are evident in different sports.
November 10, 2013
Enjoyable reading, and a few nuggets to store away for teaching ideas!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews