Bell-shaped distribution

Two dice roll: We now roll two dice of white and blue, and add up the pips of faced-up sides. The smallest sum ‘2’ is given by ( , ) and the largest sum is 12 when ( , ), so that {2, 3, 4, …, 11, 12} is the sample space. But, sum ‘3’ can result from two events ( , ) and ( , ), and similarly ( , ) and ( , ) will give sum ’11.’ In table 3, we list all possible events for the sums of {2, 3, 4, …, 11, 12} of a two dice roll.

Table 3. Sum of the facing up pips of two dice roll

Pips

Events

2

( , )

3

( , ), ( , )

4

( , ), ( , ) ( , )

5

( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , )

6

( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , )

7

( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , )

8

( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , )

9

( , ), ( , ), ( , ), ( , )

10

( , ), ( , ) ( , )

11

( , ), ( , )

12

( , )

 

Since there are in all 36 events in table 3, the probabilities of sum ‘2’ and ‘12’ are 1/36, sum ‘3’ and ‘11’ are 2/36, sum ‘4’ and ‘10’ are 3/36, and so on, as they appear in the bar graph of figure 3 over the sample space {2, 3, 4, ..., 11, 12}. Here comes a surprise. The uniform distribution (figure 2) of one die roll has become a triangle distribution (figure 3) when two dice are rolled and the faced-up pips are added up. That is, you are more likely to get sum ‘7’ than any other sums in two dice throw. With Prog#7c you can check how closely a triangle distribution is realized by increasing the number of dice throws up to 5,000.

Figure 3. Two dice throw

Note:
Prog#7c is available for download on the index page.
If you use a Macintosh, view the Flash versions.

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