What Are the Chances?

What Are the Chances? — page 1

What Are the Chances? — page 2 — W hen you think about mathematics you probably think about a class at school where you do calculations and answer word problems But have you ever thought about math being all around you It’s in every shape and pattern you see It’s in every song you hear It’s in every game you play and any puzzle you solve The first mathematicians realized this and they looked for ways to prove it to show how order and reason could explain much about life as they knew it Sometimes this was easy to do But other times people just didn’t get it Even some of the most intelligent people in history have struggled with math Albert Einstein once wrote to a child Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics I can assure you mine are still greater So how can you use whatever you know about math in everyday life When you wonder about the odds of having a snow day calculate your av erage test score determine the range of options for an ice cream sundae or flip a coin to make a decision you are using math These actions are part of a branch of mathematics known as proba bility and statistics This is one of the newest branches of mathematics It involves predict ing how likely it is that particular events will occur and then studying them once they have happened Think about the different events in your life What are the ways you can apply probability and statistics to them 5

What Are the Chances? — page 3 — FINDING MATH IN RANDOMNESS IF YOU ARE FORCED TO DECIDE BETWEEN TWO SITUATIONS but aren’t sure which to choose you might do any number of things to narrow your options You might flip a coin you might roll a die or you might even play a game of eeny meeny miney moe People have used similar games of chance for thousands of years Members of ancient civiliza tions such as the Greeks Romans and Babylonians played such games However they were not involved in learning the math be hind those games Probability the study of how likely a given event is to occur did not come about un til the 1500s The math used for determining probability is not very challenging so it may seem odd that mathe maticians did not figure it out for so long They were definitely capable of doing the necessary calculations Many mathematicians of the an cient world were studying trigo nometry or algebra both topics that you cover in your later high school years So why did it take so long for mathematicians to dig in to proba bility In order to understand that it is important to understand what it means for an event to be ran dom When you think of random ness you probably think of events that you didn’t see com ing Mathematicians define random as ANCIENT ROMAN DICE GAMES WERE EVEN SHOWN IN THEIR MOSAIC ART 6

What Are the Chances? — page 4

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