The material in Week 5 contains a lot of information about a variety of topics
The first five sections of Chapter 5 focus on probability concepts.
Probability concepts are used in several ways in our everyday life. Some of them are obvious, some of them are not. Probability is a way of measuring the likelihood of thing occurring.
The remainder of Chapter 5 deals with Concepts of Voting, Fair Division and Apportionment. You have most likely cast a vote for something at some point in your life or participated in a process of dividing something in a fair way.
You have your choice this week of responding to one of two prompts, one concerning probability and the other concerning the other topics.
Consider a situation in your personal life in which one of the topics for the week has played an important role in making a decision. Please make this a real life situation and NOT a generic or fictitious example.
Choice A
The situation involves probability. In reference to that situation, answer the following
Describe the situation. Reflect on the situation and how probability is involved. You might address some of these questions.
How does probability affect the situation?
How can you use probability to understand the situation? Who is calculating the probabilities in your situation, and how is probability being computed? What kind of comparisons might you want to make?
If you have made a decision, what was it, and how did it work out?
Choice B
The situation did not involve probability. In reference to that situation, answer the one of the following,
Describe two situations in your life in which a vote was taken to make a decision. Do not discuss choosing candidates for a political office, but rather a situation which directly involved you. What was being voted on? What were your options? Which voting method was used? Why was the particular voting used? Do you think a different voting method would have worked as well or better than the one you used?
Describe a situation in your life in which an apportionment method was used or could have been used. What was involved, and how was the decision made? Why do you think we have discussed several different apportionment methods? Why don’t we just have one method and always use that one method?
Response Requirements
By Thursday, respond to one of the two prompts above in a minimum of 175 words.
