Probability (Grade 12)

Daljit Dhaliwal

Sticks and Stones game

Object of the game

Be the first player to move your piece around the board past your starting point.

Set-Up: Each student should place a marker on opposite sides of the circle. The area inside the circle is used for throwing the sticks when playing the game.

Rules

Determine which player will go first.

• Player 1 throws the three sticks into the center of the circle and moves his/her piece according to the results

• Player 2 then throws the sticks and moves accordingly.

• Play continues with players alternating turns.

http://illuminations.nctm.org/Lessons/Sticks/Sticks-Demo.html

Moves and Rules

Special Rule: If one player’s marker lands on or passes another player’s, the player passed over must move his/her piece back to the starting point.

Discussion

• Which is more likely—a throw with one stick decorated or a throw with two sticks decorated?

• Which is more likely—a throw with three sticks decorated or a throw with no sticks decorated?

• Which is more likely—a throw with three sticks decorated or a throw with two sticks decorated?

• Which is more likely—a throw with no sticks decorated or a throw with one stick decorated?

Tree diagram

Probability

A measure of the likelihood of an event is called the probability of an event

• Experimental Probability: Observed probability of an event A.P(A) = number of times A occurs

total number of trials• Theoretical Probability

DDD DDB DBD BDD

BBD BDB DBB BBB

Important Vocabulary

• Trial: A trial is one repetition of an experiment

• Random Variable: A variable whose value corresponds to the outcome of a random event

• Event: A set of possible outcomes of an experiment

• Simulation: An experiment that models an actual event

Key Terms

• Simple Event: An event that consists of exactly one outcome.

• Sample Space: The collection of all possible outcomes of the experiment.

• Event Space: The collection of all outcomes of an experiment that correspond to a particular event

Conditions for a “fair game”

• a game is fair if…

– all players have an equal chance of winning, or

– each player can expect to win or lose the same number of times in the long run

www.tee-cd.com/music/html