Product Spotlight

In All Probability You're Wondering, "What is a Binostat?"

That's a very good question - and you may have asked it if you have seen the Pitsco Binostat in the catalog, or online @

Pitsco Binostat

The best connection for most teachers (and some students) is from watching "The Price Is Right" when they have the PLINKO game.  A disc is dropped through a grid of pins, and with each pin it hits, it has a 50/50 chance (theoretically anyway) of going to the left or right of the pin. The disc works its way down the grid of pins and lands in a slot at the bottom of the board - with each slot having a prize value. Of course, some prize values are greater than others, and it is rare that the disc falls into a high value slot.

OK, so where is the educational value? Let me count the ways:

1. Inform students that games of chance are actually quite predictable - and usually not to the benefit of the player. Before demonstrating the Binostat to them, have them predict which slots at the bottom of the board will be most likely for the balls to land in. Ask if there is the same chance for every slot, or if some slots are more likely to be hit than others - and get them to assign some values (like 5 out of 100) to the slots. Then drop 100 balls through the Binostat and compare the results to those predicted by the students. Ask the students if they would have lost money or gained money if they had gambled based on their original predictions. Ask the students how the manager of a gambling club might use this information.
2. Demonstrate Standard Distribution Curves - In theory, the balls in the Binostat should fall in a standard distribution curve, also known as a Bell curve. This curve is made when the majority of the balls fall into the middle rows. Each row farther away from the middle receives fewer balls – the very outside rows often receive no balls at all. So, the probability of most of the balls falling in the middle is very high, while the probability of most of the balls falling to the sides is very low. Its difficult to make bell curves very exciting, but the use of the Binostat to make it a hands-on and visual activity can help.
   
3. Binary decision-making. In the Binostat each time a ball hits a pin it makes a decision - left or right. In many ways, this is similar to the way computers operate - on yes or no decisions. Dependent upon each yes or no decision, the ball's path is determined by which side it falls toward. This path is similar to a computer program - with the results (or path) of the program based on decisions for each step of the program. The decisions in a computer program may be based upon many things; input data, sensors, previous decisions, etc.. Have the students drop a ball through the Binostat and draw a diagram of the path of ball, labeling if the ball went left or right at each pin. Have students repeat the process with another 5 or 6 balls, noting the different paths that are taken, and the final results that are obtained.
4. Logical thinking. The Binostat can be an excellent hands-on introduction to truth tables - which are the mathematical basis for logic. When working with truth tables something is either true or false - again, similar to the left/right options for the plastic ball in the Binostat.

Chances are that the Pitsco Binostat can provide the answer to that nagging question: "Yes, or No?"