Rock, Paper, Scissors 4
posted January 26, 2000 as a Math Forum EPoW

Introduction: In the Rock, Paper, Scissors problem series, students investigate the concept of probability through an investigation of the fairness of games. In this part of the series, students adjust the rules of the game from Rock, Paper, Scissors 3 so as to make the game fair.

Where's the Math: Rock, Paper, Scissors takes advatage of the computer's ability to rapidly iterate a problem , helping students visualize probability over large sets of data. Graphs facilitate identification of trends as students experiment with problem variations between random throws and set throws in an even game. Standards: Data analysis & probability

(The applet for this problem is currently unavailable) 

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Sample submitted solution:

From: Robert, age 13
Benjamin, age 14
School: Issaquah Middle School, Issaquah, Washington

1. How many points did you assign each player to make the game fair?
Ed: 6
antelique: 3
vicky: 1

2. Were you successful in making the game fair?
yes

3. How would you explain why your numbers worked or did not work?
It worked because vicky had 3 times more probablity of winning then antilique and antilique had twice as much of probablity of winnning than ed

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