| Reviewed: |
Apr 18, 2003 by Mathematics |
| Overview: |
Interactive Mathematics?Probability is a major sub-page of the Alexander Bogomolny?s Cut The Knot! site reviewed elsewhere in MERLOT. It is a collection of approximately 20 classic problems having to do with Probability including the famous Monty Hall problem, the birthday coincidence, and Buffon?s needle. All materials are designed to engage the reader in thoughtful and sometimes interactively experimental solution attempts. Many of the presentations are accompanied by well-written java applets that the author uses in an attempt to effectively draw the reader/user into exploring possible approaches; multiple solutions from various sources are often included afterwards. In addition, there is an excellent collection of links to other math resources with accompanying annotations. This site is highly interactive and one can sense the author?s fascination with mathematics and his desire to convey this to his readers.
Please see these related reviews:
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| Learning Goals: |
The primary goal is to use examples from the area of probability to help readers experience mathematical topics in a positive and interactive way and to help them learn to appreciate the beauty and fascination of math. In addition,
in the author?s words, ?Learning starts from wondering, and another purpose of this site is to serve as a resource for things, simple but curious, related to Mathematics.? |
| Target Student Population: |
The materials here cover a range of topics and ability-levels; most of the topics are at high school and/or college levels. |
| Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills: |
Prerequisite skills vary from basic math knowledge to college-level math knowledge, depending on the topic. All of the material is presented in an accessible manner and the many java applets invite exploration and discovery. |
| Type of Material: |
This is a resource collection of textual materials along with a multitude of interactive java applets. |
| Recommended Uses: |
This material can be used to provide fun and instructive activities in probability. |
| Technical Requirements: |
A basic browser is all that is required to view the primarily textual material; a java-enabled browser is needed for the interactive java applets. The ability of the applets to run on different operating systems and browsers is highly variable with particular difficulties on older Macs and older versions of browsers. MacRuntimeJava2.1 may need to be installed independently of the older Mac OS and there still seemed to be difficulties with Explorer 5. Some failures resulted in particularly nasty system freezes. |
