Yahoo! thinks Olympic Math is “complex”

Yahoo! reported that Aya Yasuda was disqualified from her Olympic luge event because her sled was over weight. The story said that there was a “complex formula” to use to calculate the amount of ballast lugers can add to make up the difference between their own body weight and a maximum, which is different for men and women.

This is an equation, not a formula. And there’s nothing complicated about it; I’d expect a third grader to be able to get it right. The article here implies that the athlete is bad at math. Really, it’s just telling us that the reporter is bad at analysis.

If the error was 200 grams, and Yasuda weighs 60 kilos, then her error was only a matter of 0.33%. It’s entirely possible that her scale was off, or the official’s scale was off. Maybe she did the math correctly, but forgot to wear her gloves.

We’ll never know because Trey Kerby thought it was too complex to do the work.


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