Les maths du sport

It's astonishing, but chance is governed by a law! The normal distribution is ubiquitous in mathematics and more generally in all sciences. How Gauss sensed it through astronomy and Laplace through extension of the binomial distribution? What makes it so powerful? What role does the central limit theorem play in this adventure? Opinion polls are an application of this result, but their reliability must be taken with a grain of salt, as errors are due to the choice of samples and the methods used.

What do we mean by the term 'conjecture'? How have they advanced mathematics? Mathematicians don't like a result resisting them: they regularly tackle the search for it until they find a solution. Fermat's Last Theorem kept the mathematical world in suspense for three and a half centuries. However, there are many other more or less famous conjectures, pending (Goldbach or the Riemann hypothesis), disproved or solved (some even very recently). Discover how mathematics prodigy Terence Tao proved Erdös' discrepancy conjecture!

One might think that a chasm separates mathematics from the practice of sport. However, the optimization of performance in many sporting activities relies on a branch of mathematics. Geometry makes it possible to manage the trajectory of balls, but also of bicycles or Formula 1 cars. Game theory is at the basis of the strategies employed, as are probabilities, which also enable the forecasting of results and therefore the management of sports betting. Discrete mathematics (arithmetic, combinatorics…) is used for the organization of events and the establishment of rankings. Conversely, cheating can be detected through the observation of statistical inconsistencies…