What Makes Something Random?
6/12/202619 min
Did you know that you can predict the roll of a die? Well... KIND OF! Today, we'll learn why dice rolls are hard to predict one at a time (but easy to predict over ONE HUNDRED times!). We'll also learn how computer programs can create results that seem random (but really aren't)!
Curious Kids Every Day is a daily, interactive podcast that respects your child's intelligence and curiosity. I created this to be a show I would be happy to have my kids listen to.
Five Reasons to join the Curious Kids Club! SupportCuriousKids.com
- Your curious kids get a shout out on their birthdays!
- Ad-Free Podcast Feed
- Activity sheets for every new episode of the show
- Weekly episode schedule so you know what topics are coming up
- Weekly newsletters so you never miss anything!
Want to submit a question for the show? Go to CuriousKidsEveryDay.com! I'll also send you a free printable with activity ideas that don't involve screens. Those are the best kinds of adventures to have!
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJosh· Host0:00
What makes something random? [upbeat music] Hi, welcome to Curious Kids Everyday. I'm Josh. How are you doing today? It's so good to hear from you. Hey, have you ever heard someone say, "Whoa, that was random"? [upbeat music] Have you ever thought about that word, random? Do you know what it means? It's actually a very interesting word with a lot of interesting questions attached to it. Well, the word random is defined like this: having no specific pattern, or purpose, or objective. That just means that you have no way of guessing that something is going to happen. Kind of like rolling a die. [die rolling] Do you like to roll dice? [die rolling] Can you guess what the number is going to be before you roll a die? [die rolling] You might accidentally get it right sometimes, but you never know for sure what any one die roll is going to be. [die rolling] So it's kind of random. Except it's kind of not random, too. Did you know that you actually kind of, sort of can guess the roll of a die?