The Lion's Pride Volume 11 (Winter 2019) | Page 37

x Elasticity) + Net Incumbency Advantage (Rakich, 2018). This
equation breaks down as follows: ‘Election Result’ is the incumbent
politician’s margin of victory or defeat, ‘partisan lean’ is a variable used
to weight the local area’s affinity for one party vs. the average for the
country, ‘Popular Vote’ is the total vote for the U.S. House, ‘Elasticity’
is a variable which factors in how much the national mood affects the
state, ‘Net Incumbency Advantage’ is an influencing variable that is
based on several metrics and generally gives the candidate an advantage.
They used this equation to rank the winners and losers of the 2018 mid-
terms to determine each candidate’s advantage/dis-advantage. Below are
the results of running the equation.
Math, in a very real sense, is all around us. There is nearly nothing in
the universe mathematics cannot break down into its respective parts and
assign values to. This is what makes math such a major factor in all
humans' lives. Mathematics is often called the universal language