Mathematics - PearsonAccess.com

Objective 9The number of trials inan experiment is thenumber of times theexperiment is repeated.If you toss a coin100 times, you willcomplete 100 trials ofa coin-toss experiment.Do you seethat . . .What Is the Difference Between Theoretical and ExperimentalProbability?The theoretical probability of an event occurring is the ratiocomparing the number of ways the favorable outcome should occur tothe number of all possible outcomes. If you toss a fair coin,theoretically the coin should land on heads 1 2 of the time.P(H) 1 2 0.50The experimental probability of an event occurring is the ratiocomparing the actual number of times the favorable outcome occurs ina series of repeated trials of an experiment to the total number of trials.If you toss a coin 100 times, it is possible that the coin will land headsup 48 times, and tails up 52 times. The experimental probability of the48coin landing heads up in this situation would be .1 0048P(H) 0.481 00The two types of probabilities, theoretical and experimental, are notalways equal. In this case the theoretical probability is 0.50, but theexperimental probability is 0.48.For a given situation the experimental probability is usually close to,but slightly different from, the theoretical probability. The greater thenumber of trials, the closer the experimental probability should be tothe theoretical probability.236