Mathletics

Resumen del libro

How can sprinter Usain Bolt break his world record without expending any additional effort? Which demands a faster reaction time, tennis or baseball? What dates of birth give rise to the best professional athletes? Is it better to have the inside or outside lane during a race? And how can you improve your balance just by changing your posture? Drawing on vivid, real-life examples, John D. Barrow shows how math and physics can give us surprising, often counterintuitive insights into the world of sports. For example, we learn that left-handed boxers have a statistical advantage over their right-handed opponents and that gymnasts performing the "giant swing" maneuver on the high bar experience stronger g-forces than roller-coaster designers are allowed to create.

Thanks to lucid explanations and a healthy dose of humor, Mathletics is the perfect book for sports enthusiasts and math lovers alike.

Biografía del autor

John D. Barrow (Londres, 1952), catedrático de Matemática aplicada y Física teórica de la Universidad de Cambridge, es uno de los más reconocidos astrofísicos de la actualidad. Entre sus numerosos títulos publicados cabe destacar La trama oculta del universo: contar, pensar y existir (1996), ¿Por qué el mundo es matemáticos? (1997), El libro de la nada (2002), Las constantes de la naturaleza (2006) y El salto del tigre (2006), todos ellos publicados por Crítica.