This problem solving activity has a statistics focus.
When you toss 2 coins at once, will they usually land with the same side up or different sides up?
In this problem the students play a simple game that helps them begin to form an intuitive sense of what chance and possibilities mean. Theoretically, when 2 coins are tossed the chances for each outcome are ½, although with a small number or trials you probably won't get that exactly. Something that the students may not notice when they first play the game is that a same-side toss can be made in 2 ways (heads-heads or tails-tails) as can a different-side.
When you toss 2 coins at once, will they usually land with the same side up or different sides up?
Repeat the game with 3 coins.
When the game is played there will be variation in the results that helps develop intuitive understandings of chance. As more trials are made the results will begin to approach ½ , although it may take at 50 for this to happen.
There are 4 different outcomes when 2 coins are tossed:
This means that it is equally likely that they land with the same sides up as they will land with different sides up.
(8 outcomes)
HHH HHT HTT HTH TTT TTH THH THT
Here it is less likely that all the sides will be the same.
Printed from https://meaningfulmaths.nt.edu.au/mmws/nz/resource/coin-shake at 8:56pm on the 26th February 2024