Activity Description Compare theoretical and experimental probabilities, using dice, cards, spinners, or coin tosses. Three different probabilities can be compared at once. Parameters: Type of probabilities, number of trials.

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Crazy Choices Game

Place in mathematics curriculum:

• introduce the notions of chance and probability
• show the difference between experimental and theoretical probability
• motivate the notion of random numbers
• motivate ideas from combinatorics

This activity allows the user to run up to three different games of chance at once, allowing for comparison of experimental and theoretical probabilities. This activity would work well in groups of two for about twenty minutes if you use the exploration questions and ten minutes otherwise.

Preparations for this activity:

• give implicit directions on what they are to do. For example, "Today we are going to learn the difference between experimental and theoretical probabilities by ..."
• answer the question "What difference does it make what type of game I choose or what wins? It doesn't make a difference anyway."
• discuss the terms outcome, probability, theoretical probability, experimental probability, event, etc.