Greenwood press

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POLYNOMIAL FUNCTIONS
Graph of the volume of a prism formed by folding
a sheet of paper with squares of edge length, x,
removed from each of the corners.

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Building boxes
buildingboxes_procedure.shtm>
Drag racing

Shrimp

Toxic waste

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PROBABILITY
A probability is a number between 0 and 1 that tells us how likely an event
is to happen. Probabilities are expressed as ratios or percents. When probabilities
are computed from an analysis of possible outcomes, such as the probability that
a sum of 7 will show on the toss of a pair of dice, the probability is sometimes
called a theoretical probability. When the probability is computed on the basis of
experience or surveys, such as the probability of a randomly selected adult being
a smoker, it is called a relative frequency or experimental probability. Gambling
probabilities are sometimes expressed as odds. Odds express the ratio of suc-
cesses to failures, or vice versa. If you hear a bettor on a horse race say, “The
odds against Fleetfoot winning are five to two,” that means for every five times
Fleetfoot loses, he will win twice. The probability of losing is five out of seven,
and the probability of winning is two out of seven.
Games that have equal probabilities for all participants are called fair. Most
people think that tossing a coin to determine who kicks off a football game is fair,
because their life experience with coins indicates that the probability of a head is
equal to a probability of a tail. Determining the winning state-lottery ticket by
pulling winning ping-pong balls from agitated buckets is felt to be fair, because
every number has an equal chance of being selected. This perception has been
written into the election laws of many states. Illinois determines the seventh
member of its redistricting committee (otherwise evenly divided between Demo-
crats and Republicans) by pulling a name out of a hat. In 1998, the tie in ballots
for mayor of Duluth, Minnesota, was broken by the toss of a coin. Kansas once
settled a tie for state representative by having the two candidates pull chips from
a bag that contained six black and six white backgammon chips. The winner was
the first to draw a white chip. New Mexico allows tied candidates to play any
game of chance to break a tie. Coin tossing remains the favorite way of breaking