Real-Life Math
You are a talent scout for the Henry Bears, an unsuccessful hockey
club. At this year's draft, you've been instructed to focus on offense.
You're supposed to consider only those young players with goal-scoring
ability.
The team owner has you in his office for a meeting. "Now look
here," he rumbles from behind his steel desk, "I want a full report on this
Dalton Wiggs kid. I'm sending you to tonight's game. It's the
last game of the year, so I expect all the numbers on this kid."
That
night, you cover the game. Wiggs was brilliant as usual, scoring 4 goals,
assisting on 3 more and taking 15 shots. Before the match, he
had 70 goals, 103 assists and 297 shots taken. You must figure out his final
goal, assist and shot total for the season, as well as his shooting percentage.
The
following table shows what Wiggs had before the game and what he did in his
final game of the season. What did he end up with in goals, assists and points
and what was his final shooting percentage? For the latter, you should divide
his final goals total into his final shot total.
| WHEN? | GOALS | ASSISTS | POINTS | SHOTS | SHOOTING% |
| Before game | 70 | 103 | 173 | 297 | 23.6 |
| Last game | 4 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 26.7 |
"If you're talking about math, it should be said that sports
is full of it," says sports scout Bryan Shumock. "Statistics play a huge role
in sports on virtually every level. A scout will often use a young player's
numbers to gauge how he's coming along and even what he's capable
of at a higher playing level."