for heads and
for tails. She flipped a coin
times and recorded the results in the following table.
Result Frequency
Heads
Tails
Selene determines that the experimental probability for heads is
and the experimental probability for tails is
What could be the reason that the experimental and theoretical probabilities are so different?
Responses
Selene miscalculated the theoretical probabilities.
Selene miscalculated the theoretical probabilities.
Selene miscalculated the experimental probabilities.
Selene miscalculated the experimental probabilities.
Selene performed very few trials.
Selene performed very few trials.
Selene performed too many trials.
1 answer
The most likely reason that the experimental and theoretical probabilities are so different is:
Selene performed very few trials.
In probability, the Law of Large Numbers states that as the number of trials increases, the experimental probability tends to get closer to the theoretical probability. If Selene only flipped the coin a small number of times, it's common for the experimental probability to differ significantly from the theoretical probability.
