I spent Memorial Day Weekend on the beaches of South Walton County. It was amazing. The weather was incredible. The water was perfect. The condo I stayed in had a keypad in which we were given a unique code. While talking to one of my friends, she became worried about the code being easy to figure out. No fear, I told her, math can put your worry to rest. The code was 6 digits. So using the multiplication counting principle, there are 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10 = 10 ^ 6 = 1,000,000 different codes. The odds of someone randomly punching in out code was 1/1,000,000 or simple said, one in a million. The probability showed that we were safe. Even if someone had the first three digits of the code that still left a 1/(10 * 10 * 10) or 1 in 10,000 chance of getting the last three digits correctly. This led to my friend rolling her eyes at me. There is also a fabulous book entitled "One in a Million" that I highly recommend. I love probability.
1 Comment
4/1/2014 07:00:55 am
You have yet again posted something very real world about probability. This topic would be a great class opener to grab the student's attention. We could actually compare products from different companies to find which security keypads would provide the most protection for the home. Thanks for the idea!
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Natalie Turbiville
Educator who loves math and working with students. Archives
May 2016
Categories
All
|