Video Transcript
Noah designed the following simulation to model which dish a customer will order at a restaurant using a spinner. The results of 150 trials are given in the table. Pizza which was simulated by the spinner landing on A came up 57 times. Soup simulated by the spinner landing on B came up 21 times. Pasta simulated by the spinner landing on C came up 42 times. And salad simulated by the spin landing on D came up 30 times. Complete the table with the experimental probabilities of each outcome.
Let’s recall how to calculate an experimental probability. For each outcome, its experimental probability can be calculated by dividing the frequency of that outcome in the simulation by the total number of trials. We’re told in the question that the total number of trials is 150, which we could confirm by adding up the four frequencies.
To calculate the experimental probability of the first outcome pizza, we divide its frequency 57 by the total 150 giving 0.38. The experimental probability for soup is found by dividing its frequency 21 by 150 giving a decimal of 0.14. The experimental probabilities for the final two outcomes pasta and salad are found in the same way: 42 divided by 150 is 0.28 and 30 divided by 150 is 0.2.
Now, we can give the experimental probabilities in a variety of different forms. Simplified fractions would be fine, decimals, or in this case I’m going to choose to give them as percentages. So I’m going to multiply each decimal by 100. This gives the experimental probabilities as 38 percent for pizza, 14 percent for soup, 28 percent for pasta, and 20 percent for salad.
A sensible check step to do, which you can do yourself, will be to add these four values together and confirm that they do indeed add up to 100 percent.
