Lesson 3

Open your copy of the Lesson 3 Assignment, which you saved in your course folder at the start of this lesson. Complete the assignment.

 

Project Connection

 

lifeguard: Brand X/Thinkstock, Grocier: Comstock/Thinkstock, mechanic: iStockphoto/Thinkstock, yard work: Comstock/Thinkstock, fast food: Comstock/Thinkstock, waitress: Photos.com/Thinkstock,

What better way to save money than by earning it! You are now ready to tackle the next step in your project. You will be going on a job hunt to find out which jobs will be able to support your financial goals. Go to Module 1 Project: Financing your Dreams. Complete Project Connection 3: Earning Income.

 

Going Beyond

 

Have you ever helped organize a tournament? There is a lot to consider when hosting a tournament. You need to book spaces, hire referees, and provide food, not to mention working out the details of the tournament structure.

 

A popular tournament format is a round robin. Each team plays every other team in the tournament once. After all of the games are played, the winning team is the one that has won the most games or accumulated the most points. This is only one way of using the round-robin format.

 

Other tournaments use a round-robin structure for the preliminary round of play only. The highest-ranked teams after this round advance to a playoff round. In cases where it is not practical for teams to play every other team due to the large number of competitors, teams can be grouped into smaller divisions. The round-robin format is then used in each division.

 

Part A

 

You are the organizer for a sports tournament.

1. How many games would you need for a round-robin tournament with the following number of teams?
   
   
   1. 4 teams
      
      
   2. 5 teams
      
      
2. Describe how the concepts you learned in this lesson can be applied to this problem.
   
   
3. Develop a formula that can be used to determine the total number of round-robin games for n teams. Be sure to define your variables.
   
   
4. Compare the formula in question 3 to the formulas you worked with throughout this lesson.

Part B

5. Imagine you are charged with creating a tournament structure for a 10-team tournament. Research the possible ways you could schedule the games. Consider these questions:
   
   
   • What format will you choose? A round robin or another format?
     
     
   • Will there be a playoff round after preliminary play?
     
     
   • How do you seed, or rank, teams? What if there are teams that are tied?
     
     
   • How many games will need to be played?
     
     
   • How much space will you need to have?
     
     
6. Based on your answers in question 5, draft a mock tournament schedule that shows the following:
   
   
   • all matchups in the preliminary round with start times and locations of games
     
     
   • the playoff structure

Save your results in your course folder.