olympics

Here's a selection of our favourite articles on Olympic maths — from dressage, via ping pong, to athletics.

Wheelchair rugby is gearing up to the medal events on Sunday. If you placed a player of this impressive game next to a physics professor you probably wouldn't have much trouble spotting who's who. Yet, there's an intriguing connection between rugby and one of the more puzzling areas of physics.

Generally, football fans can be a rowdy a lot and that's something you've got to think about when building a football venue. Imagine the 80,000 people that fit into a stadium like Wembley jumping up and down in unison to We will rock you. Any structure, no matter how solid, has its own natural frequency at which it likes to vibrate, and if that happens to be in tune with the people's, you can end up with a dangerous sway and ultimate disaster.

One thing that's characterised the London 2012 Games is its great atmosphere — and that's largely down to the tens of thousands of volunteers who've donated their time, effort and enthusiasm to the Games. For most of them this will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But it's also possible to be part of big sporting events like this one and earn money at the same time...

Relay races are exciting to watch, but for coaches and athletes they pose a particular conundrum: in what order should the athletes be deployed — should the fastest come first, last, or somewhere in the middle?

Today we say a fond farewell to the velodrome after the final track cycling events on the weekend. From Sarah Storey's first gold for Great Britain on Thursday to the cat-and-mouse gold medal game between compatriots Anthony Kappes and Neil Fachie of the Individual B Sprint yesterday, it has been a fabulous show. To celebrate we calculate just how Storey and her fellow cyclists are able to reach such astonishing speeds in Gearing up for gold.

Inspired by Sara Storey's phenomenal gold medal we calculate whether we, and our bikes, have what it takes to triumph in our newfound quest for speed!

The Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre are taking centre stage again as medals are being awarded in both athletics and swimming. Not any old pool or running track qualifies as an Olympic venue...

Wheelchair racing is one of the most exciting disciplines in the Paralympics. And it's not just a wheel-based equivalent of Olympic racing: John D. Barrow, mathematician, cosmologist and prolific popular science writer, has spotted an important difference.

If the Olympics weren't enough for you, then you're in for another elevn days of top-performance sport: the Paralympic Games will open tonight.

Never afraid of a challenge, before the start of the London 2012 Games we issued predictions for the total medal count for the top 20 countries. Find out how we did.

Andy Murray and Laura Robson made a good team at London 2012, bringing home silver in the mixed doubles. But how do you make sure that the competing pair is the best you can pick from the team?