The Olympic Flame: Are You in the 95%?

The Olympic flame toured the UK, the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey between 19 May and 27 July 2012.  It was claimed that it would come within 10 miles of 95% of the population of these areas.

Was this true?  Did it pass 10 miles or less from where you live?

Use the Getting to the Point tool at Sport at School to find out.

We want you to help us find out how good that 95% estimate actually is.
When you've found out your distance from the route, vote in our poll (below).
You'll then see what the results are looking like - so far, it seems that a little more than three quarters of us live within 10 miles of the route, which means that almost a quarter of us don't.  But as our sample grows, this may change ...

Of course, it may be that you're more likely to vote in this poll if you think you're not in the 95%.  What effect do you think this will have on the reliability of the result?  Do you think that the way we asked the question might affect whether people are likely to respond or not?

Collect the data for your class.  

• How many of you live within 10 miles (either by road or as the crow flies) of the route?
• What measures might you use to test your class data? 
• Originally the route was intended to be within an hour's travel of at least 95% of the population.  Use Google maps to get an estimate of travel times for people in your class.  Are you in this 95%?

Click here for a poster of this problem.