L.A. Math

PREFACE: L.A. Math ix
MATHEMATICAL TOPICS BY CHAPTER xv
CHAPTER 1. A Change of Scene 1
CHAPTER 2. The Case of the Vanishing Greenbacks 11
CHAPTER 3. A Matter of Time 21
CHAPTER 4. The Worst Forty Days since the Flood 31
CHAPTER 5. The Accidental Guest 40
CHAPTER 6. Message from a Corpse 50
CHAPTER 7. Animal Passions 60
CHAPTER 8. Nothing to Crow About 69
CHAPTER 9. The Winning Streak 78
CHAPTER 10. One Long Season 88
CHAPTER 11. The Great Basketball Fix 97
CHAPTER 12. It's All in the Game 106
CHAPTER 13. Division of Labor 115
CHAPTER 14. The Quarterback Controversy 123
APPENDIXES: Continuing the Investigations
1. Mathematical Logic in "A Change of Scene" 137
2. Percentages in "The Case of the Vanishing Greenbacks" 143
3. Averages and Rates in "A Matter of Time" 148
4. Sequences and Arithmetic Progressions in "The Worst Forty Days since the Flood" 153
5. Algebra, the Language of Quantitative Relationships, in "The Accidental Guest" 161
6. Mathematics of Finance in "Message from a Corpse" 166
7. Set Theory in "Animal Passions" 175
8. The Chinese Restaurant Principle: Combinatorics in "Nothing to Crow About" 184
9. Probability and Expectation in "The Winning Streak" 189
10. Conditional Probability in "One Long Season" 198
11. Statistics in "The Great Basketball Fix" 202
12. Game Theory in "It's All in the Game" 213
13. Elections in "Division of Labor" 219
14. Algorithms, Efficiency, and Complexity in "The Quarterback Controversy" 225
An Introduction to Sports Betting 231
Notes 235
Index 239