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Glencoe Algebra 2 pg. 744

PT: Compound Probability, Conditional Probability, Odds

RW: Finding a lost friend

On a recent Today show, two women were profiled who had known each other since childhood in England.  After one of the women married, she moved away and the two women lost contact for 50 years.  One day, while standing in line at a restaurant in California, the women struck up a conversation and each of them realized that she was speaking to her long-lost friend!  After listening to their story, Katie Couric, the host of Today, pointed out that the chances of this happening must be ‘one in a million.’  One of the women, however, said that she believed the chances were probably closer to ‘one in a billion.’  Describe the steps you would take to compute the odds of this occurring.  Be sure to list all of the factors that would have to be considered.


Gordon-Holliday Pre-calculus, p. 778

PT: Odds

RW: Elections

A 1992 poll based on returns from 2,035 registered Ohioans who intended to vote found that 37% were Republican, 40% Democrat, and 21% were independent.  Mike DeWine, a Republican, and John Glenn, a Democrat, were the only two senatorial candidates.  In a poll, 77% of the Republicans and 83% of the Democrats said they would vote for their party’s candidate, while 41% of the independents said they would vote Democratic and 59% said they would vote Republican.  If these people are representative of the entire state, which candidate had the better chance of winning Ohio’s senate race, and by what odds?


Glencoe Algebra 1, p. 232

M: Availability

PT: Odds

RW: Games/Jeopardy

The game board Jeopardy is divided into 30 squares.  There are six categories with five answers in each category.  In the Double Jeopardy round, 2 Daily Double squares are hidden among the 30 squares.

a)   What are the odds of choosing a Daily Double square on the first selection?

b)   If you are making the fourth selection of the Daily Jeopardy round what is the probability of choosing a Daily Double square if one has been chosen?


Larson Algebra 1, p. 585

M: Negative and Positive Recency

PT: Simple Events, Odds

RW: Darts

The bull’s eye of a standard dartboard has a radius of about 1 inch.  The inner circle has a radius of 5 inches, and the outer circle has a radius of 9 inches.  Assume that when a dart is thrown at the board, the dart is equally likely to hit any point inside the outer circle.

a)   What is the probability that a dart that hits the dartboard lands on the bull’s eye?

b)   What is the probability that a dart that hits the dartboard lands between the inner and outer rings?

Gerver Algebra 2, p.5

Say that you hit the bull’s eye 6 out of 20 times.

a)   What is the probability that you hit the bull’s eye with your first shot?

b)   What is the probability that you hit the bull’s eye with your 21st arrow?  What are the odds of this happening?


Key to Problem Bank:

M: Misconception PT: Probability Topic RW: Real World Topic