Super Bowl Statistics, Primes, Roman Numeral Challenges

Super Bowl 53 was the 11th Super Bowl trip for the New England Patriots. One team has enjoyed more than 20% of championship games played, played in the last three consecutive Super Bowls, and four of the last five, winning a total of six Super Bowls.

Here are 10 incredible stats from the Patriots’ win:

2:08 — Tom Brady was picked off on his first pass, which came 2:08 into the game. It was the third fastest interception in a Super Bowl since 1996.

18 — Rob Gronkowski became the all-time leader in receptions by a tight end in Super Bowl history when he hauled in a 19-yard pass from Brady in the first quarter. It was his 18th career catch in a title game. He finished with 87 receiving yards against the Rams.

9 —  The Patriots and Rams finished the first 15 minutes tied at 0-0. It was the ninth scoreless first quarter in Super Bowl history.

26 — The Rams tallied just 26 yards on the ground in the first half and finished with 62 in the loss. They averaged 139.4 rushing yards per game during the regular season.

7 — The Rams were the first team ever to punt on their first seven possessions of a Super Bowl.

11 — Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman pulled in 10 catches for 141 yards in the victory. He became the 11th player ever to record six or more receptions in multiple Super Bowls.

3 — The Rams and Patriots combined for just three points through the first two quarters. It was the second-lowest scoring first half in Super Bowl history. The Steelers held a 2-0 lead over the Vikings at halftime in Super Bowl 9.

65 — Johnny Hekker tallied a 65-yard punt with 8:36 remaining in the third quarter. It was the longest punt in Super Bowl history.

2 — The Rams became just the second team ever to not score a touchdown in the Super Bowl. The 1971 Dolphins were the first. 

107 — Brady (41) and Belichick are a combined 107 years old. That is the oldest QB-coach duo in Super Bowl history.

When looking at the number of this Super Bowl: 53 and the score 13-3, and all of the stats above, one cannot avoid noticing the beautiful prime numbers emerging. 

Prime numbers are numbers that have exactly two distinct factors: 1 and the number itself; 0 and 1 cannot be prime (2, 3, 5, 7, 11....) or composite (4, 6, 8, 9, 10 ….).

My personal definition of prime numbers has to do with creating rectangles with a prime number area. Prime numbers can only form rectangles of one by the prime. For example, the number five can only form a 1 by 5 rectangle whereas the number four can form a 1 by 4 as well as a 2 by 2. So four is composite, not prime.

Here are the first few prime numbers:

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, etc. 

The first exercise I had the children do was to circle the prime numbers in the first 53 Super Bowls, then we focused on list

1. Circle Prime Number Super Bowls: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53
2. Record Corresponding Hindu-Arabic Numeral Super Bowl Years    (1968 for 2, 1969 for 3, 1971 for 5 ….). The purpose of not having them list all of the years is that it forced them to see the varying differences between prime numbers: difference of 1, 2, 2, 4, 2, 4, 2, 4, 6, 2, etc.

3.   Record Corresponding Roman Numeral Super Bowl Number (II for 2, III for 3, V for 5 …..)

4. Record Corresponding Roman Numeral Super Bowl Year (MCMLXVIII—1968, MCMLXIX, MCMLXXI…)(GRADE 3-5 ONLY)

There are a few rules for writing numbers with Roman numerals.

1. Repeating a numeral up to three times represents addition of the number. For example, III represents 1 + 1 + 1 = 3. Only I, X, C, and M can be repeated; V, L, and D cannot be, and there is no need to do so.

2. Writing numerals that decrease from left to right represents addition of the numbers. For example, LX represents 50 + 10 = 60 and XVI represents 10 + 5 + 1 = 16.

3. To write a number that otherwise would take repeating of a numeral four or more times, there is a subtraction rule. Writing a smaller numeral to the left of a larger numeral represents subtraction. For example, IV represents 5 - 1 = 4 and IX represents 10 - 1 = 9.

4. To represent larger numbers, a bar over a numeral means to multiply the number by 1000. For example, D represents 1000 x 500 = 500,000 and M represents 1000 x 1000 = 1,000,000, one million.

Challenge Problems with Roman Numerals:

1. What is the longest roman numeral for a year in our AD history (from year 0 to 2019)? 
2. What is the longest roman numeral for a one-digit number?   
3. What is the longest roman numeral for a two-digit number?   
4. What is the longest roman numeral for a three-digit number? 
5. What is the longest roman numeral for a four-digit number?   
6. What is googol as a roman numeral? (googol is 10^100 or a 1 with 100 0s)

Answers can be found in the pdfs attached. The pdfs include the Super Bowl 53 statistics, a list of all 53 Super Bowls with the winner, loser, most valuable player and the score, the Roman Numeral Rules and Challenge problems and answers.

re the first few prime numbers:

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97, 101, 103, 107, 109, 113, 127, 131, 137, 139, 149, 151, 157, 163, 167, 173, 179, 181, 191, 193, 197, 199, etc.