Experimental Probability Activity 1
Objectives
Perform a random experiment and tabulate results and calculate the experimental probability of some events
Estimated Time
Prerequisites/Instructions, prior preparations, if any
Divide the class into groups of 2 or 3 students. Let a student in each group toss a coin 15 times. Another student in each group should record the observations regarding heads and tails. [Note that coins of the same denomination should be used in all the groups. It will be treated as if only one coin has been tossed by all the groups.
Materials/ Resources needed
Coins , Paper, Pencil
Process (How to do the activity)
Now, on the blackboard, make a table like below. First, Group 1 can write down its observations and calculate the resulting fractions. Then Group 2 can write down its observations, but will calculate the fractions for the combined data of Groups 1 and 2, and so on. (We may call these fractions as cumulative fractions.)
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Group (1)
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Number of Heads(2)
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Number of Tails (3)
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Cumulative Number of Heads/ Total Number of times Coin is tossed (5)
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Cumulative Number of Tails/ Total Number of times Coin is tossed (6)
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1
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3
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12
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2
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7
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8
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Evaluation at the end of the activity
What do you observe in the table? You will find that as the total number of tosses of the coin increases, the values of the fractions in Columns (4) and (5) come nearer and nearer to 0.5.
