Punnett Squares
3. Probability
Probability
Probability is the likelihood, or chance, that a certain event will occur. The easiest way to understand probability is with coin tosses (see Figure below). When you toss a coin, the chance of a head turning up is 50 percent. This is because a coin has only two sides, so there is an equal chance of a head or tail turning up on any given toss.
Tossing a Coin. Competitions often begin with the toss of a coin. Why is this a fair way to decide who goes first? If you choose heads, what is the chance that the toss will go your way?
If you toss a coin twice, you might expect to get one head and one tail. But each time you toss the coin, the chance of a head is still 50 percent. Therefore, it’s quite likely that you will get two or even several heads (or tails) in a row. What if you tossed a coin ten times? You would probably get more or less than the expected five heads. For example, you might get seven heads (70 percent) and three tails (30 percent). The more times you toss the coin, however, the closer you will get to 50 percent heads. For example, if you tossed a coin 1000 times, you might get 510 heads and 490 tails.
CK-12 Foundation, Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/