Chapter 21 Test Questions
Robyn Wolfe
Kate Folger
Kim Lebo
1. Essay:
Discuss Chevalier de Mere, Blaise Pascal, Pierre de Fermat, and Girolamo Cardano‘s,
contributions to the development of probability theory.
2. Matching:
Chevalier
de Mere
_____
Girolamo
Cardano
_____
Jakob
Bernoulli
_____
Pierre
Simon
_____ Laplace
A. this mathematician wrote Ars Conjectandi, where he
examined the relationship between theoretical probability and
its relevance to various situations
B. Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat collaborated on the
solution to the probability problems posed by this gambler.
C. this mathematician wrote Analytical Theory of Probabilities,
which included his application of probability theory in politics
and the probable error in scientific data gathering
D. this Italian mathematician wrote his probability theory as
applied to games of chance in his book Liber de Ludo Aleae.
His theory predates the work of Fermat and Pascal, but was not
published until 9 years after their work on the Chevalier de
Mere’s gambling problems.
3. T/F:
Probability theory was first created to address questions raised by the life insurance
industry.
4: Short Answer:
What is the Law of Large Numbers in probability theory?
5: Multiple Choice:
Pascal and Fermat, like Cardano, realized that if a game with n equally likely outcomes is
repeated a large number of times, the actual number of times each outcome actually
occurs will tend to be which of the following:
1
A. 1
B.
n
1
C. 1 
D. n
n