Pie Graphs and Probability

Date: 09/21/2000 at 16:39:21
From: Kristine Pj 
Subject: Pie graphs and probability

I don't know how to get the probability from a pie graph.

Date: 09/21/2000 at 17:45:09
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Pie graphs and probability

Hi Kristine,

A pie graph or pie chart tells you what fraction of the time something 
happened, or is expected to happen, and that's what probability tells 
you, too. In fact, a pie graph is just a way of drawing probabilities 
instead of writing them down using numbers. 

For example, suppose a pie graph has three areas, with people who will 
vote for Gore (41%), people who will vote for Bush (44%), and people 
who will vote for someone else (11%).

This is like having 100 balls in a jar, with 41 marked 'Gore', 44 
marked 'Bush', and 11 marked 'other'.  

So the probability that you'll pull a 'Bush' ball out of the jar is 
44/100.  

I hope this helps.  Write back if I didn't quite answer your question, 
or if you have other questions. 

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/