Prof Dr Angelika May
Institute of Mathematics In dice games, you sometimes need a lot of luck to get the right number. Rolling the dice again - and again, and again - only sometimes helps. That's just chance! You can't predict anything before you roll the dice and only afterwards do you know which number will come up. It's exactly the same with the lottery with the correct 6 out of 49 possible numbers - that's why people usually lose and are annoyed that they keep picking the wrong numbers. So chance always plays a part in games of chance. Nevertheless, with maths, if you do it right, you can calculate a lot and even predict a little. Incidentally, we also know this from the weather forecast: if there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow, we take rain gear with us, even if the sun is still shining in the morning. If there is a 10% chance of rain, we tend to believe that the weather will be good. So that we can try out together what such probabilities mean, please bring along a dice and a coin.

• Photos from the lecture

Moderation: Carola Schede, NDR

• Download - Powerpoint file of the lecture

Wednesday, 26 March 2008
16.30 to 17.30
Audimax, Hörsaalzentrum