10. A casino tracks the total money it keeps from a slot machine each day. While individual players may win or lose large amounts on single spins, the casino almost always makes money overall. Over many spins, the casino’s daily totals form a bell-shaped pattern centered around a profit. Why does this happen?

15. A researcher does not know the population standard deviation and uses the sample standard deviation instead. Which distribution should be used?

7. A researcher adds up the total waiting time for groups of customers at a coffee shop. Even though individual waiting times vary a lot, the totals look predictable. Why?

9. A scientist studies a population where individual measurements are very uneven and not bell-shaped. He still uses sample averages to estimate the population mean. Why is this reasonable?

12. A basketball player tracks how many shots he makes out of 50 attempts during practice to estimate how often he makes a basket. What is he calculating?

1. Why does the Central Limit Theorem help us estimate a population average when we only use samples?

4. What is the gambler’s fallacy?

13. On a bell-shaped curve showing test scores, what does it mean if a student’s score is far to the right?

8. Why do cancer clusters sometimes look suspicious even when they are caused by chance?

10. Why can statistics lead to seemingly unfair decisions in areas like insurance or policing?