Education Technology

Birthday Problem

Subject Area
Math: Algebra II: Probability
Level
9-12
Activity Time
45 Minutes
Software
TI-Nspire™ CX
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire™ CX series
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS/CX II CAS
TI-Nspire Version
4.5
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS

Birthday Problem

Activity Overview

Investigate the probability of two people having the same birthday in a crowd of a given size.

Objectives

  • Describe how sampling a population with N objects works
  • Use the complement of an event to determine probability of an event not occurring

Vocabulary

  • event
  • series
  • probability

About the Lesson

This lesson involves investigating the probability of two people having the same birthday in a crowd of a given size. Topics covered include basic probability theory, sampling distributions and infinite series approximations. As a result, students will:

  • Be able to use probability to determine the likelihood of two people having the same birthday in a crowd of a given size.
  • Be able to justify the probability of two people having the same birthday.

Subject Area
Math: Algebra II: Probability
Level
9-12
Activity Time
45 Minutes
Software
TI-Nspire™ CX
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS
TI Calculator
TI-Nspire™ CX series
TI-Nspire™ CX CAS/CX II CAS
TI-Nspire Version
4.5
Resource Types
Lessons
Format
TNS
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