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Birthday Problem and Class Phenotypic Probabilities

Author(s): John R Jungck1, Jennifer Spangenberg2, Annelise L. Myers2

1. Interdisciplinary Science Learning Center at the University of Delaware 2. Beloit College

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Summary:
An Excel workbook exploring two related applications, the Birthday Problem and Class Phenotypic Probabilities. Students enter their own phenotypes into the workbook.

Licensed under these terms

Version 1.0 - published on 11 Sep 2018 doi:10.25334/Q4CT69 - cite this

Overview

This workbook as two related applications, the Birthday Problem and Class Phenotypic Probabilities. The Birthday Problem calculates the probability that two people in a given number will have the same birthday. The user will enter their class number into the worksheet and the program will output a probability, graphically. Class Phenotypic Probabilities determines the allelic frequency of a population for 6 characteristics (blood type, RH positive/negative, sex, mid-digital hair positive/negative, earlobes attached/unattached and PTC taste receptor). The user can enter their phenotype for each characteristic and the program will calculate the probability of that particular combination and the probability of other people having the same combination.

Popular Text Citations

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Education Research & Pedagogical Materials

Lesser, L.M. (1999). Exploring the birthday problem with spreadsheets, The Mathematics Teacher (92), No. 5 pp. 407-411.

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Eric W. Weisstein. "Birthday Problem." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.

Becky Schmoyer. The Birthday Problem

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The Birthday Problem, University of Virginia (broken link - http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/teacherlink/content/math/interactive/probability/lessonplans/birthday/home.html)

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George Reese. The Birthday Problem: A short lesson in probability. Applet by Nicholas Exner and Michael McKelvey

Citation

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Fundamental Mathematical Concepts

Fundamental Mathematical Concepts

Developed By

Developed by
Richard von Mises

Primary Reference

Mises, R. von. "Über Aufteilungs--und Besetzungs-Wahrscheinlichkeiten." Revue de la Faculté des Sciences de l'Université d'Istanbul, N. S. 4, 145-163, 1939. Reprinted in Selected Papers of Richard von Mises, Vol. 2 (Ed. P. Frank, S. Goldstein, M. Kac, W. Prager, G. Szegö, and G. Birkhoff). Providence, RI: Amer. Math. Soc., pp. 313-334, 1964.