8 Ways Probability is Used in Real Life

Probability is one of those topics we teach in a rather isolated manner.  I know for me, its thrown in here and there as I can fit it in but I never really address where we see it in real life.  As a matter of fact, this is another topic that would make a good infographic.

Lets look at some of the places students experience it in real life and might not even be aware of it.

1.  Weather reports usually give people the probability of rain, snow, clear, or fog.  I've listened to them but never thought anything about it.  If you hear that there is a 60 percent chance of rain, what that means is that same weather conditions produced rain for 60 out of 100 days.

2.  In sports, coaches look at certain statistics to determine who to play in a specific situation.  For instance if a baseball coach has two possible hitters, one has a .200 hitting average or 2 hits every 10 times at bat versus a player with a .400 hitting average or 4 hits every 10 times at bat.  Who would he choose?

3.  Insurance uses probability to decide how much to charge and people also look at the frequency of something happening to decide if they should get extra coverage.  One example is when you decide to get liability or comprehensive and liability based on how frequently something happens.  If 18 cars out of every 100 hit a deer, you might want both because there is an 18 percent chance of hitting one but if there is no chance of hitting a deer, you might only go with liability.

4. In games, people look at the possibility of getting something such as in poker there is about a two percent chance of getting three of a kind or a 42 percent chance of getting one pair in a hand of poker.

5.  Advertisers use probability to determine who should get which type of coupons such as looking at a woman within a certain age group is more likely to have a baby so send her discount coupons for diapers.  This is called targeted advertising.

6.  Horse racing tracks use probability to weight the betting odds so the race track owners cannot loose.

7.  Machine learning uses probability to determine the chances of the next word is as you type a text on your phone or if you type a word in a search engine, the search engine uses probability to determine the one you want.  For instance if you type in the word "cricket" it will show the most probable meaning such as the insect, the game, or the phone company.

8.  Stores use probability to order and stock shelves so they don't run out.  For instance, they want to stock up on turkeys, ham, cranberry sauce, and other traditional goods for the Thanksgiving/Christmas season or chocolates and eggs for Easter.

There are so many more ways probability is used in real life but these eight are just a quick look at how probability is used in ways we don't think about.  Have a great day and let me know what you think.