I simulated 100 coin tosses about 400 times and then made the frequencies of heads per toss corresponds to colors. For example, a couple times, 37 heads occurred so I drew a couple x's in red. I placed the x's on graph paper so that I would draw a map of the world. The purpose of this piece is to show that average does not tell the whole story about a distribution and that variance exists. On average, of the 400 times tosses, the average toss had a frequency of 50 heads but average does not tell the whole story. I wanted viewers to make the connection that Mathematics is a description of the world.
Probability is all around us and each of us is taking chances except we are not all equally lucky. When I buy food, the probability of me being able to get food depends on whether I have money and that is dependent on many factors. The probability of a millionaire being able to eat is not the same as a homeless man's. This project illustrates what happens in a fair world where the millionaire and the homeless man has the same chance of eating. Sadly, my image is not monochromatic. In a fair world, it is possible to only get 37 heads out of 100 tosses.
Part of my piece was where I normally sat in class and the school supplies I use to study. My goal was to show that Mathematicians do not just live in their heads and don't study the world. Mathematics is a description of the world.
I explained some Mathematical concepts using the class white board because that is what most people associate with Mathematics: a classroom, a prison closed space, the only place many think Mathematics matters. I wanted to reveal something about the world in that closed space to redefine that association.
