1. Title: Is An Ordinary Six-faced Gaming Die Bias?
Purpose: To carry out simple experiments to determine whether or not an ordinary
six-faced gaming die is bias or not.
VARIABLES: Independent- size of the die
Manipulated- different types of experiments
Responding- faces of the die
Procedure:
1. Students were place into six groups of threes and fours. Each group randomly
choose one of the experiments below, (i to vi) to carry out in which each group had to
throw an ordinary 6-faced gaming die one hundred and twenty times on different
surfaces.
(i) The die was held in the palm of the hand and shaken around a few times
before it was thrown onto a varnished table top.
(ii) The die was placed in a Styrofoam drinking cup and shaken around a few
times before it was thrown onto a varnished table top.
(iii) The die was placed in a glass drinking cup and shaken around a few times
before it was thrown onto a varnished table top.
(iv) The die was held in the palm of the hand and shaken around a few times
before it was thrown onto a cloth covered table top.
(v) The die was placed in a Styrofoam drinking cup and shaken around a few
times before it was thrown onto a cloth covered table top.
(vi) The die was placed in a glass drinking cup and shaken around a few times
before it was thrown onto a cloth table top.
2. When all groups carried out their experiments, all of the results were then combined.
3. A table was constructed with the frequencies of each face landing uppermost face on
the die.
4. Using Microsoft excel, charts were then made for each of the experiments to show
comparisons of the frequencies for each face
5. For each experiment, the relative probability was calculated for each face landing
uppermost. All results were tabulated.
6. All findings and comparisons were discussed and a conclusion was stated.