Exploring Chance: Outcomes and Probabilities

• newEditor
• Maths
• Primary Education
• Age 10

Lesson title

Learning objective

What do you already know about chance experiments?

Lesson Objective

At the end of the lesson you will be able to list outcomes of chance experiments and represent their probabilities as fractions.

What are Chance Experiments?

A chance experiment is an activity or process where the outcome cannot be predicted with certainty. Examples include tossing a coin or rolling a die.

Listing Possible Outcomes

Possible outcomes: Heads (H) or Tails (T)

Roll a Die

Possible outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6

Coin Toss

What Does Equally Likely Mean?

Outcomes are equally likely if each outcome has the same chance of occurring. For example, each side of a fair six-sided die is equally likely.

Representing Probabilities

The probability of an outcome is written as a fraction:

Probability =

The likelihood of rolling an even or odd number.

Worked Examples

Probability of heads: 1/2 Probability of tails: 1/2

Probability of rolling a 3: 1/6 Probability of rolling an even number: 3/6 or 1/2

Coin Toss

Die Roll

Reflection

Can you think of another chance experiment where the outcomes are equally likely?

Write down its possible outcomes and their probabilities as fractions.

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

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