Soccermatics: Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game Pro-Edition

ISBN-13: 9781472924148 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 352 str.

David Sumpter

Opis

Soccer is the most mathematical of sports--riddled with numbers, patterns, and shapes. How to make sense of them? The answer lies in mathematical modeling, a science with applications in a host of biological systems. Soccermatics brings the two together in a fascinating, mind-bending synthesis. What's the connection between an ant colony and Total Football, Dutch-style? How is the Barcelona midfield linked geometrically? And how can we relate the mechanics of a Mexican Wave to the singing of cicadas in an Australian valley? Welcome to the world of mathematical modeling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of soccer. Soccer is indeed more than a game and this book is packed with game theory. After reading it, you will forever watch the game with new eyes.

Recenzje

Sumpter's deconstruction of formations proved why maths and football can't live without each other. It's every football nerd's dream. FourFourTwo

Spis treści

Preface: The Kick-offPart I: On the PitchChapter 1: I Never Predict Anything and I Never WillChapter 2: How Slime Moulds Built BarcelonaChapter 3: Check My FlowChapter 4: Statistical BrillianceChapter 5: Zlatan Ibrah Rocket SciencePart II: In the DugoutChapter 6: Three Points for the Bird-brained ManagerChapter 7: The Tactical MapCHapter 8: Total Cyber DynamoChapter 9: The World in MotionPart III: From the CrowdChapter 10: You'll Never Walk AloneChapter 11: Bet Against the MassesChapter 12: Putting My Money Where My Mouth IsChapter 13: The Results Are InThe Full-Time WhistleNotesAcknowledgementsIndex

O autorze

David Sumpter is professor of applied mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he runs the Collective Behaviour Research Group. Originally from London, he studied his PhD in Mathematics at Manchester and held academic research positions at both Oxford and Cambridge before heading to Sweden, where he lives with his wife and two children. In his spare time, he trains a successful 9-year old boys' football team, Uppsala IF 2005. An incomplete list of the applied maths research projects on which David has worked includes pigeons flying in pairs over Oxford; clapping undergraduate students in the north of England; the traffic of Cuban leaf-cutter ants; fish swimming between coral in the Great Barrier Reef; swarms of locusts traveling across the Sahara; disease-spread in Ugandan villages; the gaze of London commuters; dancing honey bees from Sydney; and the tubular structures built by Japanese slime moulds. His research has appeared in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Proceedings of the Royal Society, among many others. @soccermatics / www.david-sumpter.com