Identical discs are flipped in the air. You win if all of the faces show the same colour. Can you calculate the probability of winning with n discs?
Six balls of various colours are randomly shaken into a trianglular arrangement. What is the probability of having at least one red in the corner?
7 balls are shaken in a container. You win if the two blue balls touch. What is the probability of winning?
Is this a fair game? How many ways are there of creating a fair game by adding odd and even numbers?
So which is the better bet? Both games cost £1 to play. Getting two heads and two tails for £3 or £2 for every six when three dice are rolled.
The next ten people coming into a store will be asked their birthday. If the prize is £20, would you bet £1 that two of these ten people will have the same birthday ?
Heads or Tails - the prize doubles until you win it. How much would you pay to play?
Use the computer to model an epidemic. Try out public health policies to control the spread of the epidemic, to minimise the number of sick days and deaths.
Hannah sent in a very succinct solution to this problem which uses the Fibonacci sequence. What else can you find out about this sequence of numbers?
Go to last month's problems to see more solutions.
This article, for students and teachers, is mainly about probability, the mathematical way of looking at random chance and is a shorter version of Taking Chances Extended.
The first of two articles for teachers explaining how to include talk in maths presentations.