Hallie is trying to win the grand prize on a game show. Should she try her luck by spinning a wheel with 6 equal sections labeled from 1 to 6 and hope she gets a 5, or should she roll two number cubes and hope she gets the same number on both cubes? Explain

Answer 1

Hallie should roll two number cubes and hope she gets the same number on both cubes. This is because there are only 6 possible outcomes when spinning the wheel, with only 1 of them resulting in a win (getting a 5). This gives her a 1 in 6 chance, or about a 16.7% chance of winning. However, when rolling two number cubes, there are 36 possible outcomes (6 possible outcomes for each roll), with 6 of them resulting in a win (getting the same number on both cubes: 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, or 6-6). This gives her a 6 in 36 chance, or about a 16.7% chance of winning (which is the same as spinning the wheel), but with more chances to win overall. Therefore, rolling two number cubes gives Hallie a slightly better chance of winning than spinning the wheel.