Question

2. Olympic Games data below that relates to men’s and women's performances in the 100m
and high jump.

a. Check students' understanding of the tables with questions like:
 In which years did the men reached 2.23m in the High jump?
 In which years did the women reached 1.91m in the High jump?-
 Why are there no results for 1950 and 1970?
 Why are there no results for 1940 and 1944?
 In what year did women first jump higher than 2 metres?
 Why is it possible for someone to have jumped 2.24 m in men’s height jump
in 1968 but not in 1972?

b. Let the students display the data sets graphically.
 Check students understanding of the effects of random fluctuations on the
data.
 Can we be sure that the height in the high jump at the next Olympics will be
higher than last time?
 Why don't both graphs for the high jump steadily decline?
 List some possible causes of the rises and falls in the data.
 Do athletes jump higher each Olympics?
 Why don't both graphs for the high jump steadily increase?
 List some possible causes of the rises and falls.

c. Check students understanding of the long-term trends in the high jump data.
 Is it likely that the high jump results for the 2048 Olympics will be greater than
those for 2004?
 List some of the reasons why the high jump results are increasing.
 Will they keep increasing?

 To what level of accuracy are high jumps measured?
 Why are the answers to the last two questions in some sense contradictory?
 Will the high jump ever be measured to greater accuracy?
 Is there an upper limit to the height athletes can jump? What is it?
 It has been said that at some time in the future women and men will compete
at the same level in the same events, i.e. against each other. Do the data
displays support this statement? Discuss.

Olympic High Jump results * MH = Men's height jumped (in metres) **WH = Women's height jumped (in metres) Year 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 MH* 11.98 2.04 2.12 2.16 2.18 2.24 12.23 2.25 WH* 1.65 1.76 1.85 1.9 1.82 1.91 (1.93 11.97 Year 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 MH* 2.23 12.35 12.38 12.34 2.39 2.35 2.36 WH* 1.68 1.91 2.03 12.02 2.05 12.01 2.06

Answer 1

a)

i) 1968

ii) 1960

iii) The Olympic Games are normally held every four years, so after 1948 the next games would be 1952. So in the year 1950 and 1970 Olympic Games are not happened.

iv) World War led to cancellation of the 1916,1940 and 1944 games.

v) 1988