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Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:14 pm
by andrewcliffe
I've just received a press release into my Racing Exposure in-box.
For the newly relaunched F1 Magazine, a boffin was commissioned to create a formula to calculate who will win the 2010 F1 World Championship, based on analysis of the past 40 years of F1. Dr. Mark Peace is said boffin, a Doctor of Physics, lecturing at Reading University.
The formula is: Z = 11√p/r + 10w + 5s + 5f/20a
p = number of poles in the season
r = number of retirements in the season
w = number of wins in the season
s = number of second and third places in the season
f = number of point-scoring positions achieved lower than 1st, 2nd or 3rd
a = average race finish in the season
I wonder if it applies to Mono?
For those who are interested, apparently Mark Webber (Red Bull) will beat Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) to become the 2010 F1 Champion.
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 1:19 pm
by andrewcliffe
Sample data. I'll post the other classes later. I'm not sure how the best 11/13 races is taken into consideration though...
Top 10, Mono1000 in 2010. Apologies for formatting, forums are never good at this!
Code: Select all
Driver Races 1st 2nd 3rd Podiums Poles Fastest Points
1 Arty CAMERON 9 7 1 0 8 6 4 121
2 Chris WOODHOUSE 7 4 3 0 7 3 6 102
3 Len TURNER 13 1 1 2 4 1 1 101
4 Stephen BROOKS 8 0 2 2 4 0 0 75
5 Geoffrey COWELL 11 0 1 1 2 0 0 67
6 Dax WARD 5 1 2 1 4 1 1 59
7 Darren FREEMAN 6 0 2 1 3 0 0 46
8 Peter COLLIER 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 27
9 Jonathan REED 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 26
10 Stuart DIGBY 4 0 0 3 3 0 0 20
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 9:47 pm
by samier
I would have to be really bored to sit down and work through that formula!! Gives me a head ache just looking at it lol
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2010 10:17 pm
by RedRedWine
Please could you email me the table you've created? It would be very interesting to have a go, but I'm too lazy to retype your excellent work.
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 7:38 am
by tristancliffe
I'll have a quick go later. Very simple formula really, using pre-teen level maths only. Good brain practice too. Certainly beats my usual game of trying to add the cost of my shopping in my head quicker than the till can.

Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 3:50 pm
by Emma Cliffe
tristancliffe wrote:Certainly beats my usual game of trying to add the cost of my shopping in my head quicker than the till can.

I know someone sad enough to do that and, worse, I'm related by marriage to him!!!

Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 8:15 pm
by lee
tristancliffe wrote:I'll have a quick go later. Very simple formula really, using pre-teen level maths only. Good brain practice too. Certainly beats my usual game of trying to add the cost of my shopping in my head quicker than the till can.

You should get out more
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 8:50 pm
by andrewcliffe
Shop at Poundland, it makes it so much easier.
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 9:26 pm
by tristancliffe
Well, I wrote the last post whilst waiting for Laura to finish in the toilet in the Natural History Museum. I really don't think getting out more has much to do with ones ability at applied mathematics.
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 9:05 am
by tristancliffe
Okay, I fed in the values for Jeremy and Me, and for Arty and Chris... I didn't bother doing any more. I used results to the end of the Croft meeting (i.e. as if we hadn't gone to Silverstone yet).
The value of Z (which I notice isn't defined by the equation's creator) for the above four drivers is: (drum roll please)
Me : 85.58
Jeremy : 77.70
Thus it correctly predicted the Mono2000 championship, although the final result was closer in reality (5.5%) than in the equation (10.1%).
Arty : 77.00
Chris : Infinity or Zero or Nothing (i.e. not even zero)
Chris didn't suffer a DNF, and hence has a 'divide by zero' error. If this zero is substituted by 0.0000001 then the value approaches infinity, so it's safe to say, based on this equation, that Chris is not only the best driver, but also the Master of the Universe and the Messiah.
Unless he did get a DNF and I missed it.

Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:07 am
by andrewcliffe
I think Chris had a DNS of race two at Anglesey. I guess that counts...
Re: Anyone bored and good at maths?
Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:12 am
by tristancliffe
Hmmmm, he didn't qualify either, so effectively didn't participate in that round. Had he qualified and not started the race (like I did at Brands) then I'd count it.
If Chris's non-starting for Angelsey 2 is counted, then Z for him is 74.05, and hence the equation correctly predicts Arty's championship. But I don't count it...!