| P O E T R Y, P R O B A B I L I T Y , L I G H T, P R I M A R Y F U N |
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Most folks accept that there are two outcomes to flipping a coin: heads or tails (we don't normally deal with the other two possibilities: landing on its edge, which is very hard to do, and flipping the coin so quickly it would gain orbit . . . even more difficult to accomplish). The question arises whether they are equally likely to occur. For instance, if we were to flip a coin twice, what would we expect to be the outcomes? The penny toss activity here investigates that. As with anything, it's important to gather data about the topic. In our classroom, we flipped coins. One student flipped nine tails in a row before he flipped a head. Is that common? Is it likely to happen again and again? The following activity allows you to flip the coin fifty times (really fast too, but sigh, not quickly enough to gain orbit). Study the data. Did you have equal numbers of heads and tails. Did one come up more often than the other? Would you expect to get similar results the next time you did this? Try it! |
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| Activities |
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Home Probability Penny Toss Sweethearts Seuss Quiz Word Search |
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| ’Net Links |
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Coin Flipping Flip Site Penny Page Canadien Mint The New Two Hold Pennies |
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| T H E F R A N K L I N I N S T I T U T E' S W I R E D @ S C H O O L |
