Which option is more practical if you need to know a specific percentage?
See solution.
Practice makes perfect
With a table for on-base percentages, we can consult these values directly without doing any calculations. Let's take a look at the on-base percentages (OBP) of Ted Williams in the first 4 years of his career.
Year
OBP
1939
0.436
1940
0.442
1941
0.553
1942
0.499
From this table, we might get a general opinion about Ted Williams's early career but it is not possible to calculate any other percentage. Conversely, by knowing the formula, we are able to find any percentage, no matter whether it is in the table or not.
OBP = h+w+p/b+w+p+s
If we want to calculate Ted Williams on-base percentage in 1957, we need to substitute the corresponding values into the formula. In 1957, Ted had 163 hits, 119 walks, 420 at bats, 2 sacrifice flies, and he was hit by 5 pitches.
In conclusion, if we have a table we do not need to do calculations. However, we are restricted to the given values. Conversely, if we have the formula for on-base percentage, we can calculate any percentage.
