STATISTICS AND PROBABILITY: TIPS AND TRICKS
- A
common mistake when collecting information about a population is
collecting information from a subset of the population and claiming it
reflects the views of the total population. For example, if you surveyed
the general population about animal shelters, a sample drawn from people
who work at animal shelters would be a biased sample, not representative
of the total population.
- Using a
representative sample to predict the total population produces an
estimate, not an exact answer.
- The
theoretical probability of an event and the experimental probability of an
event are usually not exactly the same. Even though the probability of flipping
heads is
, you would rarely flip a coin
20 times and get 10 heads. However, the more times you performed the
event, the closer the experimental probability should come to the
theoretical probability. - Students
will often find incorrect probabilities because the outcomes they are
comparing are not equally likely. For example, there are 11 sums that are
possible when two 1−6 number cubes are tossed. The probability of a sum of
3 is not
since the different sums are
not equally likely. - Many
students may need to experiment with several probability events to gain an
understanding of probability.
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