Probability with Coins or Dice
Probability
w/ Coins
or Dice- In cell F4, enter this formula, similar to the one above: =IF(E1=1,F4+1,F4)
- Add the total number of heads plus tails.
Click on cell G4, and then click the AutoSum icon (∑). You will see the for-
mula =SUM(E4:F4) appear in the cell. Press Enter to accept it. - Change E1 so that it will randomly contain either a zero (0) or a one (1).
Go to cell E1, where you had previously entered a 2. Click on the cell to edit
it, and type in the following: RANDBETWEEN(0,1)
Press Enter. - Do not do anything else except to Save your file at this time.
Name it “Coin Toss”. - You now have a very “bare bones” worksheet that will toss a coin and keep
track of the totals. Try it by pressing the F9 key several times. When you
are done, it is CRITICAL that you close WITHOUT saving in order to start
again with all zeroes. For a final step later, you can change the properties
of this file to “Read-only”, to prevent accidental changes.
Note:The function you will use to generate the random numbers, RANDBETWEEN, is
not a standard Excel function, but is, instead, part of something called the Analy-
sis ToolPak. To have this and other functions available, you need to do the follow-
ing: From the Tools menu, select Add-Ins. When the dialog box opens, click on the
boxes next to Analysis ToolPak and Analysis ToolPak –VBA. Click OK to exit.
See page 53, Creating the Solution for more details.
Figure 207
Using AutoSum to generate the desired
SUM formula