Speedway tournaments in the classroom

Extract

Dr T. J. Fletcher’s article in last December’s Gazette [1] was of great interest mathematically in illustrating how an eminently practical problem (here, essentially a combinatorial problem) could be solved using some surprising and unexpectedly theoretical mathematical ideas. (These included the field GF(2²), the group (C₂)⁴ and finite geometries, as well as excursions into Pappus’ and Desargues’ theorems.) But to myself, at least, the interest was augmented because the article provided the background for three or four end-of-term lessons with a third year grammar school form. The purpose of this article is to describe how some of the material was adapted.