Maths and Sport: Records, Medals and Drug Taking - Professor John D. Barrow

We examine the striking patterns between world record performances in different sports and ask what events an ambitious nation should target as the 'easiest' in which to win Olympic medals. How does Olympic success correlate with a nation's GNP? How does the location of the Olympics affect the chance of record breaking? And how can simple statistics help us understand the likelihood of winning streaks and the chance that an innocent athlete will fail a drugs test?

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and...

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website.
http://www.gresham.ac.uk