Usain Bolt is determined to become a legend this weekend, by
running the 100m in 9.4 seconds. But what does mathematics have
to say about this quest? What is the ultimate limit which no
runner can possibly surpass? How can Bolt improve his record
significantly without improving his speed? What about the
effects of wind assistance, timing accuracy, and altitude on
sprint times? Find out about all this and more in the Plus
article No limits for Usain and in this video of a lecture given
by John D. Barrow and featured on our sister site Maths and
sport: Countdown to the Games. The weekend will also be a great
one for Olympic tennis so you should rehearse the scoring rules:
You win a game if you score 4 points before your opponent scores
3 points. Or, if you both score 3 points at some stage you win
if you manage to score 2 points in a row after the 3-all stage
before your opponent does. That's quite a mouthful and it turns
out that the maths behind tennis can get tricky too. What is the
secret to the perfect ser