'Well, you are going ahead, but let's see.' I looked around for a11 easy example.
I noticed her impeccably done-up room, tucked in pink bedsheets. On the
opposite wall were posters of Westlife, Backstreet Boys, Hrithik Roshan. Next to
them was a wall of greeting cards. 'See those cards?'
'They are birthday cards from my school friends. I had my birthday two months
ago.'
I ignored the information overload. 'Say there are twenty of them. Most are
white, though. Some are coloured. How many?'
'Five coloured ones,' she said, scanning the cards, her eyes asking 'so?'
'Cool, five. Now let's say I take all the cards and put them in a sack. Then I pull
out one card, what is the probability the card is coloured?'
'Why would you put them in a sack?' she said.
'Hypothetical. What is the chance?'
'I don't know.'
'Ok, so let's use this example to start the basic premise of probability.
Probability can be defined as,' I said as I wrote the lines:
Probability = No of times something you want happens / No of times something
can happen
'How come there are no symbols?' she said.
'See, I told you probability is interesting. Let's look at the denominator. How
many different cards can come out if I put out one card from the stack of twenty?'
'Er ... twenty?'
'Yes, of course. Good.'
'Duh!' she said.
I controlled my irritation. I dumbed down the problem for her and she duh-ed
me. Some attitude, there.
'And now the numerator. I want a coloured card. How ma different coloured
cards can come out if I pull one?'
'Five?'
'Yep. And so let's apply our wordy formula,' I said and wrote down.
Probability = No of times something you want happens (5) / No of times
something can happen (20) So, probability = 5/20 = 0.25
'There you go. The probability is 0.25, or twenty-five per cent.' I said and placed
the pen back on the table. She reread what I wrote for a few moments.
'That is simple. But the exam problems are harder,' she said at last.
'We will get there. But the basic concept needs to be understood first. And you
didn't vomit.'
I was interrupted by two beeps on her cellphone. She rushed to her bedside
table to pick up the phone. She sat on the bed and read her message. 'My school
friend. She's stupid,' she smiled fondly at the phone.
I kept silent and waited for her to come back. 'Ok, let's do another one,' I said.
'Let us say we have a jar with four red and six blue marbles.'
I finished three more problems in the next half an hour. 'See, it's not that hard
when you focus. Good job!' I praised her as she solved a problem.
'You want tea?' she said, ignoring my compliment.
'No thanks, I don't like to have too much tea.'
'Oh me neither. I like coffee. You like coffee?'
'I like probability and you should too. Can we do the next problem?'
Her cellphone beeped again. She dropped her pen and leaped to her phone.
avery
(avery)
#1