March 10, 2001

Today, the class began with a discussion on the differences between experimental probability and theoretical probability. Students then played Racing Game with One Die by hand using a game board and hotwheels and discussed the results as a class. They then played Racing Game with One Die on the computer and discussed the advanteges to simulating the experimental probability this way rather than by playing the game by hand. The instructor then asked the class to change the rules to play an unfair game and change the length of the game each time - starting at game length 1 and increasing it to game length 30. Students graphed the results in MS Excel.

After the break students played a similar game by hand, Racing Game with Two Dice. The instructor rigged the game to have player A move on rolls of 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12 and player B move on rolls of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Most students thought player A would win because there were more numbers to move on but as it turned out player B won almost all the time because there were more possibilities for the sum of the two dice to be 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 than 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 12. Students then played Racing Game with Two Dice using the same rules as they played by hand, increasing the game length each time. Students again graphed the results in MS Excel.