Can you express probability as a percent

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Free course Mathematics for science and technology. However a fraction such as one divided by four may also be expressed as a decimal number or as a percentage: equation sequence one divided by four equals 0. Previous 3 Probability and common sense. Next 5 Combining probabilities. Take your learning further Making the decision to study can be a big step, which is why you'll want a trusted University. OpenLearn Search website Back to top. Our partners OpenLearn works with other organisations by providing free courses and resources that support our mission of opening up educational opportunities to more people in more places.

Can you figure out what the theoretical probability for each number is? In this activity, you will put your probability calculations to the test. For example, outcomes with very low theoretical probabilities do actually occur in reality, although they are very unlikely. So how do your theoretical probabilities match your experimental results? You will find out by tossing a coin and rolling a die in this activity. Observations and Results Calculating the probabilities for tossing a coin is fairly straightforward.

A coin toss has only two possible outcomes: heads or tails. Both outcomes are equally likely. This means that the theoretical probability to get either heads or tails is 0. The probabilities of all possible outcomes should add up to 1 or percent , which it does.

When you tossed the coin 10 times, however, you most likely did not get five heads and five tails. In reality, your results might have been 4 heads and 6 tails or another nonand-5 result. These numbers would be your experimental probabilities. In this example, they are 4 out of 10 0. When you repeated the 10 coin tosses, you probably ended up with a different result in the second round. The same was probably true for the 30 coin tosses. Even when you added up all 50 coin tosses, you most likely did not end up in a perfectly even probability for heads and tails.

You likely observed a similar phenomenon when rolling the dice. Instead of rolling each number 17 percent out of your total rolls, you might have rolled them more or less often. If you continued tossing the coin or rolling the dice, you probably have observed that the more trials coin tosses or dice rolls you did, the closer the experimental probability was to the theoretical probability. Overall these results mean that even if you know the theoretical probabilities for each possible outcome, you can never know what the actual experimental probabilities will be if there is more than one outcome for an event.

This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Go Paperless with Digital. Materials Coin Six-sided die Paper Pen or pencil Preparation Prepare a tally sheet to count how many times the coin has landed on heads or tails. Prepare a second tally sheet to count how often you have rolled each number with the die.

Procedure Calculate the theoretical probability for a coin to land on heads or tails, respectively. Write the probabilities in fraction form. What is the theoretical probability for each side?

Now get ready to toss your coin. Out of the 10 tosses, how often do you expect to get heads or tails? Toss the coin 10 times. It only takes a minute to sign up. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Is it correct to express probability in percentage terms.

Shouldn't probability be always expressed between 0 - 1? I searched on net but could not find a satisfactory answer. We used the term "per cent" just as a matter of convenience. Remember that these are just human conventions to help us interpret the data in a way that is most intuitive to us. Another point is that many probabilities are proportions the probability of drawing an ace is the proportion of aces in the deck , and so percentages are a natural way to express such probabilities.

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