Why does increasing the number of trials in an experiment generally lead to the experimental probability getting closer to the theoretical probability?

With more trials, the effect of random chance is reduced, and the overall results tend to even out and approach the expected theoretical probabilities.

Describe a situation where the experimental probability might be significantly different from the theoretical probability, even with a large number of trials. What could cause this?

If the device used in the experiment is not fair (e.g., a weighted die), the experimental probability will consistently differ from the theoretical probability, even with many trials.

Experimental Vs. Theoretical Probability Lesson Plan for 12th Grade

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Objective

I can compare and contrast experimental and theoretical probability and explain how sample size impacts experimental probability.

Part 1 of 4

Warm-up video

mathantics · 11:28Vetted channel

We don't generate video — this one is by mathantics on YouTube. The practice questions and exit ticket below were drafted by AI for this objective, and every question is editable in the teacher guide.

Part 2 of 4

Key concepts

3 concepts

1
The probability of an event tells us how likely that event is to happen; it can be written as a fraction, decimal, or percentage.
2
A probability of zero means an event cannot happen, while a probability of one means an event is certain to happen.
3
To calculate probability, create a fraction with the number of desired outcomes as the numerator and the total number of possible outcomes as the denominator.

Part 3 of 4

Practice

7 questions

Explain the difference between theoretical and experimental probability. Provide an example of each.

If you flip a fair coin 10 times and get 7 heads and 3 tails, what is the experimental probability of flipping heads? How does this compare to the theoretical probability?

Part 4 of 4

Exit ticket

Quick comprehension check

“Explain the difference between experimental and theoretical probability. Then, describe how increasing the number of trials in an experiment affects the experimental probability and how it relates to the theoretical probability.”

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Experimental vs. Theoretical Probability

Objective

Warm-up video

Key concepts

Practice

Exit ticket

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