The Spirit of the Games

Introduction | Task | Process | Guidance | Conclusion | Questions

Introduction
     The first Olympic Games featured only one event - a foot race. The 2004 Games will include thousands of competitors in about 300 events. In this project, you will explore how linear functions can be illustrated by the Olympics.

The Task
In your new job as a sports writer for a local newspaper, you have been assigned to write an article comparing men's and women's times in a timed Olympic event. Your article needs to contain the following information:

• a brief history of the event including the names of participants that were well-known or in some way unique, and anything unusual that may have happened over the years;
• the winning times for men and women in the same timed event, such as a swimming or a running event;
• graphs of the times over the years for the event;
• a prediction for whether the men's and women's time will ever be approximately the same.

The Process
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete the following items.

• Find data about timed Olympic events. For help, try these Web sites.
  www.hickoksports.com/history.shtml
  www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/resources/data/olympics/olymindx.htm
  www.usolympicteam.com
  www.edgate.com/summergames/inactive/breaking_news/index.html
  www.infoplease.com
• Make a table of the years and winning times for men and women in the same event.
• Make appropriate graphs to display the winning times.
• Research the history of the event to find any famous or unique people who have won the event over the years.
• Devise a method for determining whether the men's and women's times will ever be approximately the same in the event you chose. Include an explanation of your method in your article.
• Be creative. Add some additional data, information, or even pictures to your newspaper article.

Guidance
Here are some additional questions and ideas you may want to consider for your project.

1. How have the winning times for the event you chose changed over the years?
2. When do you think the times will be at the lowest? Is there a limit to the length of time needed to complete the event?
3. How do timed events differ from other Olympic events?
4. Have the Olympics always been held every four years? Why or why not?

Conclusion
Here are some ideas for concluding your project.

• Present your article to your school newspaper for publication, if possible.
• Present the information on a Web page. Have other students critique your project and help you to make improvements to your project.
• Compile all of the articles from your class into a newspaper. Publish it using desktop publishing software.

Questions

Lesson 4–6
The table shows the winning times, in seconds, for the women's Olympic 400–meter freestyle swimming event.

1. To make graphing easier, change the year to Years Since 1924. So, 1924 will be 0, 1928 will be 4, and so on. Write the ordered pairs (years since 1924, winning time).
2. Graph the ordered pairs.
3. Is the relation you graphed in part b a function? Explain why or why not.

1. Draw a line of fit for the scatter plot of the data, where x represents the years since 1924 and y represents the winning times in seconds.
2. Write an equation for a line of fit.