Question

In the game 'rock, paper, scissors', both players make a fist with one hand. On the count of three, the players make either a rock (by keeping their hand in a fist), a sheet of paper (by holding their hand out flat), or a pair of scissors (by sticking out their first two fingers).

If both players make the same thing, it's a tie. If a rock and scissors are played, the rock wins. If scissors and paper are played, the scissors win. If paper and a rock are played, the paper wins.
a) Play at least 20 games of 'rock, paper, scissors' with a friend. Record the results as you go - write down who won, and what with.
b) After you've finished playing, organise your results into a table and use this to estimate some probabilities. Who was most likely to win? Were either of you more likely to play a certain object each time? Could you use this information to help you win more games next time?

Answer 1

The student's task is to play 'rock, paper, scissors' with a friend 20 times, record the results, and analyze probabilities of winning and choice tendencies, which pertains to experimental probability in mathematics.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is asking for a practical exercise of playing 20 games of 'rock, paper, scissors', recording the outcomes, and then analyzing the data to estimate probabilities of winning and tendencies in choices. This involves experimental probability which is part of elementary statistics within mathematics. After playing and recording the games, you would use a table to organize the results. The possible outcomes for each game are 'rock', 'paper', 'scissors', or 'tie'. By calculating the frequency of wins for each choice and each player, as well as the overall number of times each choice appeared, you can estimate the probabilities.

For example, if 'rock' won 8 out of 20 games, then the experimental probability of winning with 'rock' would be 8/20, which simplifies to 0.4 or 40%. If your data showed a strong preference for one choice over others, you might adapt your future strategy based on that information.

In a similar vein, other statistical exercises like rolling dice, tossing coins, or playing games of chance with specified win/loss probabilities are all aimed at understanding and quantifying randomness, probability distributions, and expectations in experiments or games of chance.

Answer 2

If this is for a school assignment, not sure how someone else would record themselves playing rock paper scissors.