Every time you flip a coin, roll a die, or pick a card, you're doing math without even knowing it. Probability is the math of figuring out how likely something is to happen — and once you learn it, you'll see it everywhere.
Some things are super likely. The sun coming up tomorrow? Pretty much guaranteed. Some things are super unlikely. Finding a unicorn in your backyard? Don't hold your breath. Most things sit somewhere in the middle.
Don't worry — it's a friendly fraction. The top number is what you want to happen. The bottom number is everything that could happen. That's it.
Here's a quick example. Imagine a bag with 1 red marble and 3 blue marbles. There are 4 marbles total. The probability of picking the red one is 1 out of 4, or ¼. The probability of picking a blue one is 3 out of 4, or ¾.
A regular die has 6 sides, with the numbers 1 through 6. Each side has the same chance of landing face-up. So the bottom of our fraction is always 6.
A coin has 2 sides: heads and tails. Each side has the same chance of landing up. So the probability of heads is 1 out of 2, or ½.
Here's something tricky to remember though: even if you flip heads five times in a row, the next flip is still ½. The coin doesn't remember what happened before. Every flip is its own brand-new question.
This spinner has 4 equal sections — green, blue, orange, and purple. The probability of landing on any one color is 1 out of 4, or ¼. Try spinning a bunch of times — do the results even out?
Tap the button to give it a spin!