Is Math A Sport?

theodp writes "The close of the International Mathematical Olympiad prompts Slate to question if math is a sport, wondering if mathletes might someday compete in the Olympics alongside track stars and basketball players."

Comments

No.

[Mr. Vandemar]

nt

Ridiculous.

[Chess_the_cat]

Absolutely ridiculous. If math is a sport then what isn't a sport. Fuck. The world has gone nuts.

Re:Ridiculous.

[SydShamino]

No, math is not an athletic sport. But it is still something to compete in and be proud of. I got a few nice trips and multiple days out of school in high school to travel for math competitions, and I wasn't particularly good at them.

What upsets me more, though, is how academic and athletic achievement are recognized so differently.

For example, a student athlete has their records published in the newspaper, the yearbook, and is recognized at student events. The student athletes that aren't as good don't get as much recognition, but their performances are public record as well.

Contrast this with schools that are having to eliminate 'A' and 'B' honor rolls, because publication of such rolls shows that everyone not on those lists are 'C' or below students.

So someone who's even marginally good at sports get to see their name in the paper, and get talked about at school, while those who are good at academics might get a note from the teacher with an extra smiley face sticker. No wonder academic instruction in the US is going downhill.

Absolutely

[3l1za]

No question about it -- they are.

Here are some traits of a sport:

(1) It's something that you can train for -- and, with training, improve in

(2) It's something in which your progress and fitness and skill/talent can be measured

(3) It's something in which some people are just naturally gifted and others can achieve at a level commensurate with their effort -- to a point. At some higher levels of mathematics, though -- just like at some levels of athletics (e.g. the Tour de France, the Olympics), no amount of training can overcome a genetic deficiency.

Most of all, both (mathematics & sports) are fun!

Of course not

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

It's an art.

Depends

[Apreche]

Just about every word in the english language has multiple definitions. You know, when you look in the dictionary and there are numbers 1,2,3, etc. Lets' take a look at one in the OED.

I. 1. a. Pleasant pastime; entertainment or amusement; recreation, diversion.

If you use that one, then yes, math can be a sport for some people.

d. Participation in games or exercises, esp. those of an athletic character or pursued in the open air; such games or amusements collectively.

That one depends on how you do the math.

c. spec. Pastime afforded by the endeavour to take or kill wild animals, game, or fish. Freq. with adjs. referring to the result achieved.

no, math is not a sport. Unless you can make a funny joke about how doing math kills wild animals. See replies to this post for witty comments.

I disagree...

[John Seminal]

Those criteria can make anything a sport. For example, by your criteria, masturbation can be a sport. I know people who have been training in masturbation for years. They do it every day. They progress and get better at it. No more of the right hand only, then use the left hand too, and upside down. They can even postpone ejaculation. And yes, some people are more naturally gifted at masturbating than others. But do we want to call it a sport?

You are missing one of the main criteria for sports. You have to be able to stop someone else from scoring or getting what they want. In all games, there is a defense for the offense. What can you defensivly do to stop someone in math?

Re:I disagree...

[stoborrobots]

Actually, rather than the existance of defence, the criterion should be the existance of competition...

Tennis, basketball, swimming, cycling and track are not sports when they're not competitive - they are exercise.

(And doing maths yourself, i.e. homework, is also called exercise...)

Re:I disagree...

[Deadstick]

What can you defensivly do to stop someone in math?

Produce a counterexample.

Prove his solution isn't unique.

rj

Re:Yes

[rokzy]

Maths is not a sport.

If it were, then why not Physics? or Chemistry? or Biology? or History? or Latin?

I suspect people who want maths to be a sport are those who are good at multiplication tables and think they deserve recognition for it, but are too crap to actually do any proper mathematical research.

Re:Sure!

[Temporal]

Isn't it amazing what you can prove using clever divisions of zero?

Re:Yes

[michael_cain]

None of these are sports, even if someone did attach some variation of "olympiad" to them. Let me put it this way -- could you hold an annual competition for the "best" mathematician (or biologist, or physicist) in the world each year? Not the best at taking a multiple choice biology exam, or at solving differential equations in their head, but the best at creating new knowledge in the selected field? Various organizations give awards for the "best" paper in different fields each year, but any one of those may be the culmunation of years of work and experimentation. But the thing that makes people great at such fields are those elusive "Aha!" moments in the middle of the night, or in the shower, or whenever, when a collection of pieces fall into place and form a pattern that no one has ever seen before.

I can just imagine the announcers at the typical annual world math competition in, say, the topological manifolds event. "And there's the final buzzer, Bob, and as usual -- NOTHING HAPPENED! The greatest topologists in the world went at it for 60 minutes and NONE OF THEM HAD A SINGLE INSIGHT!"