Lawrence decided to test the balance of his favorite six-sided die. To do so, over the course of a month, he wrote down the tota
l number of rolls he made with it at his weekly gaming night, and how many of those rolls showed a result of six. His data may be seen in the table below. Week
1
2
3
4
Rolls Made
39
21
55
41
Results of Six
5
3
11
11
Find the experimental probability of Lawrence’s favorite die rolling a six, expressed as a percentage to two decimal places.
a.
16.67%
b.
18.49%
c.
19.23%
d.
26.83%
Please select the best answer from the choices provided
We simply have to sum up all the times he had a six then divide that by all the times he rolled the die.
Total times he got 6: 5 + 3 + 11 + 11 = 30
Total times he rolled the die: 39 + 21 + 55 + 41 = 156
The experimental probability is then 30 / 156 = 19.23%
It's a bit higher than expected (1/6 or 16.66%), but the sampling is relatively small. If he were to throw it a thousand times, he'd probably be much close to the theoretical probability.
