Question

Adrian is throwing a ball into a pail. With 50 attempts, the ball goes into the pail and stays 8 times, goes into the pail and bounces out 6 times, and misses the pail 36 times. If Adrian throws the ball again, what is the probability of each outcome?

Probability the ball goes into the pail and stays =
Probability the ball goes into the pail and bounces out =
Probability the ball misses the pail =

Answer 1

1. The approximate probability that the ball goes into the pail and stays is 8/50 or 4/25.
2. The approximate probability that the ball goes into the pail and bounces out is 6/50 or 3/25.
3. The approximate probability that the ball misses the pail is 36/50 or 18/25.

Explanation:

Experimental probability is the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the total number of trials or times the activity is performed. It is based on the results of an experiment or a simulation. For example, if you toss a coin 10 times and get 7 heads and 3 tails, the experimental probability of getting heads is 7/10 = 0.7. This may not match the theoretical probability of getting heads, which is 1/2 = 0.5, because of random variation or error. The more trials you perform, the closer the experimental probability will get to the theoretical probability.

To find the probability of each outcome, we need to divide the number of times the outcome occurred by the total number of trials. Using the given data, we can calculate the probabilities as follows:

• The probability the ball goes into the pail and stays = 8/50 = 0.16
• The probability the ball goes into the pail and bounces out = 6/50 = 0.12
• The probability the ball misses the pail = 36/50 = 0.72

We can check that these probabilities add up to 1, which means they are valid.

Answer 2

The probability the ball goes into the pail and stays in is 16%

The probability the ball goes in to the pail and bounces out is 12%

The probability the ball misses the pail is 72%

STEPS:
Divide each number by 50.
36 divided by 50: 0.72
6 divided by 50: 0.12
8 divided by 50: 0.16

Remove the 0’s from the numbers
0.72 -> 72
0.12 -> 12
0.16 -> 16

We want to make sure that all these numbers equal 100 because 100% is 50 in this equation.
12 + 16 + 72 = 100
Because those numbers equal 100, 50 is equal to 100%

Hope this helps!