GEN202A

Laboratory Exercise 1

Investigation Probability

Name: ______________________________________________________

Year and Section: _______________________Date:_________________

The probability of a chance event can be calculated mathematically using the following
formula:

Probability = number of events of choice/number of possible events

What is the probability that you will draw a spade from a shuffled deck of cards? There
are 52 cards in the deck (52 possible events). Of these 13 cards are spades (13 events of
choice). Therefore, the probability of drawing a spade from this deck is 13/52 (or ¼
or .25 or 25%). To determine the probability that you will draw the ace of diamonds, you
again have 52 possible events, but this time there is only one event of choice. The
probability is 1/52 or 2%.In this investigation, you will determine the probability for the
results of a coin toss.

Materials (per team of two)

2 pennies (one shiny, one dull) card board box

Procedure

1. Work in teams of two. One person will be student A and the other will be student
B.

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 2. Student A will prepare a score sheet with two columns-one labeled H (heads), the
other T (tails). Student B will toss a penny ten times. Toss it into the cardboard
box to prevent the coin from rolling away.

3. Student A will use a slash mark (/) to indicate the result of each toss. Tally the
tosses in the appropriate column on the score sheet. After 10 tosses, draw a line
across the two columns and pass the sheet to student B. Student A will then make
10 tosses, and student B will tally the results.

4. Continue reversing the rolls until the results of 100 (10 series of 10) have been
tallied.

5. Prepare a score sheet with four columns labeled H/H, Dull H/Shiny Tail, Dull T/
Shiny H, and T/T (H = heads; T = tails). Obtain two pennies-1 dull and 1 shiny.
Toss both pennies together 20 times, while your partner tallies each result in the
appropriate column of the score sheet.

6. Reverse roles once so that you have a total of 40 tosses.

Discussion

1. How many heads are probable in a series of 10 tosses? How many did you
actually observe on the first 10 tosses?

2. Deviation is a measure of the difference between the expected and observed

results. It is not the difference itself. It is the ratio of the sum of the difference
itself. It is the sum of the differences between expected and observed results to the
total number of observations. Thus:

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Deviation = (| difference between heads expected and heads observed | + | difference
between tails expected and tails observed |) / number of tosses

Calculate the deviation for each of the 10 sets of tosses.

3. Calculate the deviation for your team’s total (100 tosses).

4. Add the data of all teams in your class. Calculate the class deviation.

5. If your school has more than one biology class, combine the data of all classes.
Calculate the deviation of all classes.

6. How does increasing the number of tosses affect the average size of the
deviation? These results demonstrate an important principle of probability. State
what that is.
7. On the white board, record the data for tossing two pennies together. Add each
column of the chart. In how many columns do data concerning heads of a dull
penny appear?
8. In what fraction of the total number of tosses did heads of dull pennies occur?

9. In how columns do data concerning heads of shiny pennies occur?

10. In what fraction of the total tosses did heads of shiny pennies occur?

11. In how many columns do heads of both dull and shiny pennies appear?

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List of Groupings

(by Partner)

ACUPANDA, JHON Rey and Japin, Almar

ALAM, ABRAHAM DAVID and Kilat

ALISNA, JHAZMAE ARNAID and Looc

ALMENCION, JHORIC and Magdalan

ALVIOLA, ROSELYN and Mamac

AUSTERO, MARJC AUSMHERE and Manzano

BILANO, REI and Maquiso

BUENA, JANROS ATHANIEL AND PALTINCA

BULANGIS, RENZ JOSHUA AND PENEDES

CALIDGUID, CALVIN JOSHUA AND SAMOTIA

CREDO, PETER NEIL AND SENERPIDA

DAYUCOS, ANGELO AND TORRES

DE CASA, DECK AND TUBAGA

ERAN, CARL ANGELO AND TUBANG

FAELDAN, KRISCEL GWYN AND TUBOG

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