Concept Byte: Conducting Simulations

Use With Lesson 12-7

ACTIVITY

A simulation is a model of a real-life situation. One way to do a simulation is to use random numbers generated by a graphing calculator or computer program.

On a graphing calculator, the command RANDINT generates random integers. To create a list of random integers, press . The calculator will display RANDINT(. After the parenthesis, , and press enter begin box , enter , end box  repeatedly to create random 1- and 2-digit numbers from 0 to 99.

Activity 1

About 40% of people in the United States have type A blood. Estimate the probability that the next two people who donate blood in a blood drive have type A blood.

• Step 1 To simulate this situation, let a 2-digit number represent 2 people. Use a calculator to generate 40 random 2-digit numbers, like the example below.

  
  Image Long Description

• Step 2 Since about 40% of people in the United States have type A blood, 40% of the digits 0–9 can be used to represent these people. Let 0, 1, 2, and 3 represent people with type A blood, and let 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 represent people without type A blood. So, the 2-digit number 53 represents one person without type A blood (the digit 5) and one person with type A blood (the digit 3).

• Step 3 In the example below, the six numbers in red represent two consecutive people who have type A blood. The other 2-digit numbers have at least one digit that represents a person of a blood type other than type A.

  P ( two consecutive people of blood type A ) = number of times the event occurs number of times the experiment is done   = 6 40 = 0.15 table with 2 rows and 2 columns , row1 column 1 , p open . twoconsecutivepeopleofbloodtypecap a . close , column 2 equals . fraction numberoftimestheeventoccurs , over numberoftimestheexperimentisdone end fraction , row2 column 1 , , column 2 equals , 6 fortieths , equals , 0.15 , end table

You can also simulate situations using other methods, such as rolling number cubes, spinning spinners, or flipping coins.

Activity 2

A cereal company has a promotion in which 1 in every 6 boxes contains a movie ticket.

• Step 1 Roll two number cubes to represent two boxes of the cereal. Let 1 represent a winning box and let 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent a nonwinning box.

• Step 2 Record the result. Repeat this process 30 times. Use your results to estimate the probability that both boxes contain a movie ticket.

Table of Contents