Experimental probability

Imagine a room full of people who keep flipping coins until they get a tail. Will anyone get six heads in a row?

Are these games fair? How can you tell?

If everyone in your class picked a number from 1 to 225, do you think any two people would pick the same number?

Are these domino games fair? Can you explain why or why not?

Some people offer advice on how to win at games of chance, or how to influence probability in your favour. Can you decide whether advice is good or not?

Find out about the lottery that is played in a far-away land. What is the chance of winning?

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.

You'll need to work in a group for this problem. The idea is to decide, as a group, whether you agree or disagree with each statement.

You and I play a game involving successive throws of a fair coin. Suppose I pick HH and you pick TH. The coin is thrown repeatedly until we see either two heads in a row (I win) or a tail followed by a head (you win). What is the probability that you win?