The Possible and Impossible...

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We kicked off MAT 257 with Probability! I remember in Elementary School I really enjoyed probability. I was a little nervous to start probability in this class because I wasn't sure if I would remember everything or not. I was also worried that many things may have changed with the new Common Core standards.The first thing I thought of when thinking about probability were Tree Diagrams. I remember I had a really hard time with these when I was in school and it took me a long time to understand how they worked. I found this website, MathIsFun, to be extremely helpful at explaining what a Tree Diagram looks like and how they are used when dealing with probability problems.

Going through my activities and homework helped remind me of the many methods to use when dealing with probability problems. I personally find it very helpful to draw pictures for many of these problems. A visual representation of events makes it a lot easier to see what is happening and understand what will happen next. I had completely forgotten what mutually exclusive and non-mutually exclusive events were until I reviewed these terms. I have put the definition of these terms into my own words and it really helped me remember each definition throughout the course.

- Mutually Exclusive Event: There are no common elements in the event. The outcome of the event will never be shared. 

- Non-Mutually Exclusive Event: There are common elements in the event. The outcome of the event could be shared.

I've learned that when tackling on probability problems there are many ways to approach figuring out the problem and I prefer to try and draw a picture before everything else.
Find what works for you!
  -Brianna 😊

Comments

  1. RheaApril 16, 2018 at 9:06 PM

    Hi Brianna! Cute blog! In this particular post, I can totally relate! Probability was something I needed a refresher on. Especially the odds in favor. I stumbled upon the website you found about tree diagrams. It really helped me along the way and I'm glad you found it to be helpful as well! Visual representations are a big help to me as well. Thanks for writing a great post.

    -Rhealynn

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