Little Dallas and her Math Adventure
There once was a girl named Dallas Spencer. She loved to play sports. Dallas played several sports, her favourite being badminton. One day, during her math class, which she absolutely hated, and most often fell asleep in, her math teacher was discussing the importance of math in our everyday lives. Dallas found this extremely boring and decided to zone out the teacher by staring at a poster on the wall.
While staring at the poster, Dallas slowly started to doze off. Suddenly the man, whose face was on the poster, jumped out of it and onto her desk. He called himself professor Mathomer. He looked at Dallas with confusion and said "You must be Dallas, I have come to show you how math is important in your life." He then took her by the hand and the two of them jumped into the poster.
"Where are you taking me?" Asked Dallas frantically.
"I am taking you to my world. It is called Mathearth." Mathomer continued by asking, "Now as I can see from watching you during class, you do not seem to enjoy it. This is why I have decided to take you to my world, where I can relate Math to things you enjoy doing. So what do you like to do?"
"Umm well I love playing sports. My favourite is badminton, I’m not the best at it but it’s fun to play. I really wish I could become a better player though. There is no way you can find anything in badminton that relates to Math."
"On the contrary my child. Badminton is actually a very Mathematical sport. I’ll show you. Who knows I might even be able to show you how to become a better player by using basic math concepts." Replied Mathomer.
With the wave of his hand, a badminton court suddenly appeared in front of their eyes. "Have you really looked at the shape of a badminton court? The geometrical shape, the rectangle, is a very common shape used on the court. The entire court is composed of several different sized rectangles. All of the lines on the court create some kind of rectangular shape."
"Wow! That’s amazing. I’ve never noticed that before." Said Dallas with enthusiasm.
"You know how you told me that you wanted to get better at badminton. Well here’s a little trick involving Math that may help you. Every shot in this sport involves the use of angles. You see, if you want the shuttle to go downwards, like a smash, you have to hit it in the air at an angle less than 90 degrees, in other words, at an acute angle. If you want the shuttle to go upwards, for a shot like a clear, you should hit the shuttle at about a 90 degree angle or a little greater then 90 degrees. Remember if you hit the shuttle at a very high angle, it will simply go straight up into the air, and will most likely not go over the net. So now you know how to make perfect shots every time."
"Gee, thanks for the tips. I had no idea that the shots were related to Math." Replied Dallas.
"Do you know when you serve long, the direction of the shuttle creates what you are now learning in Math? It creates a parabola. You can use a formula to calculate how long it takes for the shuttle to hit the ground after it has been hit, or even the height of the shuttle when it was hit. Also, if you didn’t know how to count, you wouldn’t be able to keep score." Mathomer continued, "So there you have it, Math is a wonderful thing. Without it you would not be able to play the sports you so fondly enjoy. So don’t take Math as a joke. It is all around us and we cannot avoid it not matter how much we dislike it."
"Man! You’re right. Math is very important and it is everywhere, even in a simple game like badminton. I’m going to really try to pay attention in class now and I’ll be sure to try out your tips the next time I play."
Suddenly Dallas reappeared in her classroom where she listened attentively for the duration of the class. From that day on she tried very hard to pay attention to the teacher at all times. She also improved on her badminton skills.
