Dreidel Probability

In December we did a probability study with dreidels. We talked about the tops used for the traditional Hanukkah game of dreidel and what we would expect with a fair dreidel. Students said that each of the four sides should have an equal chance of coming up. A few talked about how they want gimel to come up the most. Then we speculated about why one side might come up more than the others. Students thought about how they were made, about whether the letters were painted on or were on the side in relief, and about how the dreidel behaves when it is spun. I shared that to get an accurate picture we needed to have a lot of spins. In our study we compared plastic and wooden dreidels to see if one kind was more consistently fair than the other. Students spun the dreidels in class and at home for homework. Then each student recorded the results in a spreadsheet. Here are our results: