Ice Cream Prices (Simulation)
- Author:
- Steve Phelps
Suppose that you have only 50 cents in your pocket and you want to buy an ice cream cone. The owner of the ice cream shop offers a random price determined as follows: You roll a pair of fair, six-sided dice, and the price is the larger number followed by the smaller number (in cents). We will approximate, and then determine, the probability that you’ll be able to afford the ice cream cone.
Use the simulation below to perform at least 100 repetitions of this random process. Report the approximate probability that you can afford the ice cream cone.
Use the expression to produce an error bound for this approximate probability. Interpret what this means about the actual probability that you can afford the ice cream cone.
How could you produce a better approximation?
Use the simulation above to produce an approximate probability that is likely to fall within ± .01 of the actual probability. Also report the number of repetitions that you use and the interval in which the actual probability is likely to fall.
Repeat the simulation above to produce an approximate probability within ± .001 of the actual probability. Report the number of repetitions that you use and the interval in which the actual probability is likely to fall.