Beijing National Aquatic Center
Image Gallery ( 7 images )February 6, 2008 Construction work on the Beijing National Aquatic Center began in December 2003 in preparation for the 2008 Olympics and four years later, a stunning piece of architecture has been completed. The “Water Cube” is a rectangular-shaped steel building covered by a membrane of brightly lit blue bubbles which is incredible to look at but it is also important on an environmental level. The Water Cube consists of 100,000 sq m of ETFE, (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) a unique transparent plastic which absorbs solar radiation and reduces thermal loss. This is the first time EFTE has been used in China and it is the world’s largest and most complex EFTE building ever constructed.
EFTE is recyclable and light (1% the weight of glass) but it is also strong, capable of bearing up to 400 times its own weight. As it lets in more light and is a better insulator than glass it will reduce energy costs in the Water Cube by 30%. The Water Cube’s structure consists of 3,000 pneumatic cushions ranging from with different sizes from 9sqm to less than 1sqm in size. These "air bubbles" are relatively independent of each other so they can be easily replaced. The LED-lit bubbles allow warm air to enter the building and keep the water temperature at an optimum 28 degrees, but the air can also be stored and used in the Water Cube when required.
The building has outdoor and indoor air recycling systems, solar energy
and double-deck ventilation devices. The air-conditioning system uses recycled hot water and the designers engineered the airflow in the Water Cube to ensure that the ventilation in the upper regions of the building was optimized.
To help keep humidity at 50-60%, air ventilation systems at the lower end of the roof and in the façade of the building shell were also installed. Also, the pool’s depth is 13 meters, which helps to reduce the interference of water temperature variation.
The Water Cube spans 80,000-sq-m and was constructed with 6,700 tons of steel, but as EFTE spans greater distances than glass it needed less supportive steel structure beneath it.
Olympic Records Through Time 
Are we faster, stronger, better than we used to be?
Compare the records of gold medal olympic winners for the last 100 years and decide.
This is your task:
- Choose an olympic event from the site at the end of this list.
- Plot each event on a 2 dimensional graph.
- Put the years on the horizontal axis
- Put the statistics on the vertical axis.
- Be sure to use a scale that's appropriate for your event.
- Analyze your data.
- What trends did you notice?
- Were there any years that didn't fit the overall pattern?
- Share your results with 3 other people.
- Did your trend match their trends?
- Did they have any data that didn't fit their pattern?
- Write about what you found.
- What was your event?
- What was the pattern you found?
- Did anyone else share your pattern?
- Try to explain the pattern you found. Why do you think it happened?
- advanced Can you find an equation which describes the pattern of your data?
Max and the Marginalized
Mathematics of the Dead
Paint a picture by the numbers
Ink the sky in synthetic blue
Strategize statistics much too good to all be true
Keep the count declining
Mushroom clouds have silver linings too
For you, the battlefield and the ballot box are two
Sides of one bad equation
One life saved is two dead later on
In 100 years of John, carry the 1, carry it on
On and on, manipulate the space between the X and Y
Cross out all those T's and put those dots on your I's
A calculation simplified enough to wrap my head
Around the mathematics of the dead
A manufactured downtick
No it isn't too far-fetched to grasp
A tiny children's band-aid on a gaping gangrene gash
Bring out the substitute
Send more boots and pull them back to base
These figures look good on their face
Run them in place, run them in place, just in case
Manipulate the space between the X and the Y
I'm crossing all my fingers with the wool on my eyes
A calculation simplified enough to wrap my head
Around the mathematics of the dead
My oh my, it's very temporary just a matter of time
And I wish that I wasn't skeptical enough to roll my eyes
At statistics ever-tilted by design to stay ahead
Beyond the mathematics of the dead
Introduction | Democracy is the worst form of Government except [for] all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. Winston Churchill |
| Voting theory is the mathematical treatment of the process by which democratic societies or groups resolve the many and conflicting opinions of the members of the group into a single choice of the group. A vote is an expression of a voter's preference about the outcome of an election. Why do we need a mathematical theory about something so simple as voting? Actually, when an election involves only 2 candidates (or alternatives), then the situation is as simple as you might have imagined. For instance, suppose there is an election between Janice and Betty for senior class president.
The situation is very different, however, when an election involves more than two candidates or alternatives and we wish to rank each of them in order of preference (preferential voting). Mathematical economist Kenneth Arrow proved (in 1952) that there is NO consistent method of making a fair choice among three or more candidates with preferential voting. This remarkable result assures us that there is no single preferential election procedure that can always fairly decide the outcome of an election that involves more than two candidates or alternatives. |
| What do we mean by fair? | Fundamental Terms and Ideas |
Back to topics listing for section V. THE MATHEMATICS OF VOTING
