Experimental Probability Statistics Example 1

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Example 1

easy
A student flips a coin 50 times and gets 28 heads and 22 tails. What is the experimental probability of getting heads?

Solution

  1. 1
    Step 1: Experimental probability = number of times event occurredtotal number of trials\frac{\text{number of times event occurred}}{\text{total number of trials}}.
  2. 2
    Step 2: P(heads)=2850=0.56P(\text{heads}) = \frac{28}{50} = 0.56 or 56%.
  3. 3
    Step 3: This is close to but not exactly 0.5 (the theoretical probability), which is expected because experimental probability varies from trial to trial.

Answer

The experimental probability of heads is 2850=0.56\frac{28}{50} = 0.56 (56%).
Experimental probability is based on actual observations from an experiment, not on theoretical calculations. It may differ from the theoretical probability, especially with a small number of trials. As the number of trials increases, experimental probability tends to approach the theoretical value.

About Experimental Probability

Experimental probability is the probability of an event estimated from actual experimental data, calculated as the number of times the event occurred divided by the total number of trials. It approaches the theoretical probability as more trials are conducted.

Learn more about Experimental Probability →

More Experimental Probability Examples

Example 2 medium

A bag contains an unknown number of red and blue marbles. In 80 draws (with replacement), 52 red and

Example 3 medium

A spinner has sections coloured red, blue, and green. After 120 spins, the results are: Red 45, Blue

Example 4 hard

A basketball player made 72 out of 100 free throws in practice. (a) What is her experimental free-th

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