There are 16 hockey teams in a league - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 15 - 2018 - Paper 3

To find the total number of matches played, we first determine how many matches each team plays against every other team.

1. Calculate Matches per Team: Each team plays 2 matches against each of the other teams. In a league with 16 teams, each team plays against 15 other teams. Therefore, the number of matches played by one team can be calculated as:

   $ext{Matches per team} = 15 imes 2 = 30$

2. Calculate Total Matches: Since there are 16 teams, the total number of matches played in the league can be calculated by considering that each match involves two teams. Hence, when we multiply the number of matches played by each team by the total number of teams, we must divide by 2 to avoid double counting:

   $ext{Total Matches} = \frac{16 \times 30}{2} = 240$

Thus, the total number of matches played in the league is 240 matches.