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Probability
Hello Everybody! Today I wanted to do a short lesson on Probability.
How many times in your life have you played a dice game, and you had to roll number three in order to win. So you're shaking the dice in your hands, and your saying to yourself "come on...come on...." and then you throw that dice. Do you really know what your chances are of getting that number? This is what I am here to tell you today!
Okay, so first things first, probability is always written as a fraction. There is actually a formula to determine the probability of something happening. If you would like to know what that formula is, click here: Probability Formula
However, for someone who is new to learning anything about probability, that is really confusing. The way that I choose to think of it is how many ways you can get what you are looking for over how many ways there are total. So, in our case, we are only looking for one specific number (the number that we are looking for is 3, and there is only one 3 in a single dice) over a total of 6 numbers. That means that our probability of rolling a 3 is: 1/6.
Say you wanted to get any even number instead of just the number 3. Then you know that there is 3 even numbers on a dice, and 6 total numbers, that would make your answer 3/6. However, in this case you would need to simplify because 3/6 is the same thing as saying 1/2. That would mean the probability of rolling an even number is 1/2.
This same method can be done to determine lots of different things. For example, if you are flipping a coin and you want it to land on heads, you know that there is 1 outcome that you want over 2 total potential outcomes. That would mean that your probability of landing a heads on a coin toss is 1/2.
Say you wanted to get any even number instead of just the number 3. Then you know that there is 3 even numbers on a dice, and 6 total numbers, that would make your answer 3/6. However, in this case you would need to simplify because 3/6 is the same thing as saying 1/2. That would mean the probability of rolling an even number is 1/2.
This same method can be done to determine lots of different things. For example, if you are flipping a coin and you want it to land on heads, you know that there is 1 outcome that you want over 2 total potential outcomes. That would mean that your probability of landing a heads on a coin toss is 1/2.
Please let me know if you have any questions about the basics of probability!
Hey Kristen, your real life example was cute because I feel like mostly everyone can relate to it. The fact of it is that whenever someone plays a game like this, they don't really think about what their chances of winning are. I thought it was neat to tie your lesson on probability back to a real life example. I looked at the formula you provided in the link, and you are correct: it looks complicated! I prefer your way of thinking about it, simple and to the point. Thanks!
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