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You’ve got your Math IA deadline close and are feeling uncertain about your topic choice? No worries at all - this text will make your decision-making process easier. In this post, we’ll dive deep into Math IA ideas with examples to help you kickstart your work. Our objective is to guide you not only in meeting the IB criteria but also to ensure that you’re on track. Whether you have an interest in statistics, calculus, or any other captivating math domain, our suggestions are designed to kindle your creativity.
We know that math isn’t the only subject and that’s why we prepared guides for other subjects too. So if you’re in need, feel free to check them out as well. Now, explore our topic suggestions along with tips on what to do, good luck!
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Math AA IA ideas
Determining the optimal shape of a bottle: In this topic, you can use calculus to model the most effective shape of a water bottle (or any other plastic bottle of your choice, for example, soda bottles). Since most plastic bottles produced are cylindrical, you can explore if there is a way to produce differently shaped bottles that could minimize plastic waste.
Population modeling studies: Here you can model the population changes of a country, or changes in animal populations in ecosystems by using exponential or logarithmic models of population growth. You could then analyze if this amount of growth is sustainable for the economy/ecosystem.
Counting possible arrangements of players in team sports: In this IA you could use counting principles such as nCr and nPr to determine the number of ways that players can be arranged before a match, which has applications in various sports such as football, basketball, volleyball, etc.
Golf analysis: Within this area, you could explore how the angle at which the golf ball is hit, and the amount of air resistance affects how far a golf ball goes and can use this to study projectile motion.
Creating graphics using mathematical functions: Exploring this one, you could use mathematical functions to plot a graph that resembles an image. This image could be from a wide range of sources such as company logos, your favorite TV character, or even your pets!
Finding the volume of objects: Regarding this matter, you could use calculus to model the volume of 3D objects such as vases, mugs, bowls, etc. You could even get creative and measure the volume of irregularly shaped objects!
Caffeine consumption: In this topic, you could measure how the amount of caffeine consumed affects heart rate. You could look at people of different age groups, or people with heart conditions to see how increasing caffeine consumption affects different people.
Height of basketball players: Here you could explore if there is a correlation between how tall a player is and how many points they score per game.
Body fat analysis: Talking about this, you could analyze how a person’s body fat amount can affect their performance in sports, such as their speed in a freestyle swim or the height that they can jump.
COVID-19 studies: Writing about this, you could analyze the rate at which COVID-19 spread and how the rate of transmission changed throughout the pandemic.
Benefits of education: On this subject, you could look at how the level of education affects a person’s income post-graduation and can compare the data between countries as well.
Bread making: With this matter, you could observe the shape of the dough to model how the time taken for bread to proof changes.
Calcium content of eggs: Covering this bit, you can use mathematical modeling to find the equation of an egg and use that to determine the calcium content of its eggshells.
Sorting students: Diving into this, you could use combinations and permutations to determine how a number of students can be allocated to different rooms for a test or exam.
Travel safety: As for this topic, you could conduct statistical analysis to identify regions that are safe or unsafe to travel depending on various crime rate factors. You could look at the probability of certain events occurring there to decide whether that place is safe enough to travel to.
Math AI IA ideas
IBDP candidates: Here you could use statistical analysis to plot the number of IB Diploma Program students over a range of years, and use that to model the future growth of IB.
Infant mortality rate: In this one, you could use statistical analysis to explore how the infant mortality rate is related to the GDP per capita of a country and can compare these values across developed and developing countries.
Gene inheritance patterns: With this topic, you can use conditional probability analysis to examine how traits are passed down from parent to child. This can be used in applications such as parental identification tests or to test for any genetic illnesses that could be passed on to children from their parents.
Modeling cooling: Covering this one, you can measure the rate of cooling of your favorite hot drink (for example tea, coffee, hot chocolate) and use mathematical equations to model the rate of cooling.
Success of a movie: There you can explore how successful a movie was by comparing its production costs to its global earnings and ratings and can conduct statistical analysis to measure the extent of success.
Muscle mass: About this, you can explore how the type of protein consumed affects the rate at which a person is able to gain muscle mass, as well as the amount of muscle mass gained in that time.
Plant growth: Rolling with this, you can model the types of plant growth in different environments (for example, differences in soil degradation, fertilizer use, etc.)
Income inequality: Here you can measure how the level of income affects the quality of life in different countries by measuring the Gini coefficient and analyzing Lorenz curves.
Temperature and surface area: Playing with this concept, you can explore how the surface area of a substance correlates to its surface area, which can be determined through mathematical modeling.
Airfare prices: Digging into this, you can use mathematical modeling to investigate how airlines price their tickets based on demand and understand how overbooking works.
Candies in a container: Exploring this, you can use mathematical modeling and calculus to determine the volume of a container of candies and extrapolate that to determine the theoretical maximum number of candies that could fit in the container.
Height of volleyball players: In this topic, you could explore if there is a correlation between how tall a player is and their spiking ability.
Military expenditure: Navigating this one, you can explore how the GDP of a country relates to its military expenditure by conducting statistical analysis such as measuring Pearson’s correlation coefficient, IQR, etc.
Online shopping and salary: On this one, you can explore how the amount a person spends on online shopping relates to their monthly/yearly income by conducting statistical analysis such as measuring the Pearson’s correlation coefficient, IQR, etc.
Public park visitation: Finally here, you can explore how the location of a public park determines the number of people that visit it daily/weekly/monthly, etc using statistical analysis.
For more IA ideas and a deeper insight into how to structure your IAs, head to the Clastify website where you will be able to find numerous Math AA and Math AI IA topics as well as exemplar IAs that you can refer to during your writing process!
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