Playing with History
The Playing with History Project surrounded our probability unit. During this unit we learned about the different types of probability and how to find or solve for each of the outcomes. To see the different probabilities we learned please look at the key below. We connected probability to history and our lives by learning, playing, and adapting probability games from the Renaissance. Each student or group of students chose one games from the Renaissance time period to adapt and analyze. Once we learned our games through and through we were able to display them at our Renaissance Fair exhibition. At our exhibition we taught guest our games and showed them the probability and chance that was the basis for the games that they were playing.
Probability KEY:
Probability Game: All Fours
The title (All Fours) of the game refers to its four principal scoring points:
History:(GAME)
Modern Time:
Why All Fours:
How is All Fours is played?
SCORING SYSTEM:
Adaptation/Chance and Probability:
Tarot Cards Created:
- High. One point scored by the player dealt the highest trump in play.
- Low. One point scored by the player dealt the lowest trump in play or, in some later versions, winning it in a trick.
- Jack. One point scored by the player capturing the jack of trump in a trick.
- Game. One point by the player capturing the greatest value of counting cards in tricks.
History:(GAME)
- All Fours is one of the oldest history extant card games in England
- The first description of this game was by Charles Cotton’s Compleat Gamester of 1674, where the game was reported as popular in Kent
- Most historians agree that All Four’s descends from Dutch ancestry
- It played a role with the association of the name Jack with the card rank that was originally known only as the knave, therefore normalizing this term in modern society
Modern Time:
- All Fours is the foundation for many modern games. The most commonly recognized game is Blackjack
Why All Fours:
- My partner and I choose to exhibit All Fours because it was a game that was the basis for many other games played all throughout Europe during the Renaissance. All Fours was the earliest version of its ancestry.
How is All Fours is played?
- Dealer starts by shuffling a standard deck of cards (jokers removed)
- Each player is dealt 6 cards, they can look at them
- The rest of the deck is kept in a stack by the dealer
- The dealer flips the top card, if it is a jack the dealer will get one point
- The suit of the flipped card becomes the trump suit (a trump suit can beat or “trump” any other suit, meaning it has the highest value)
- Each player rolls two dice, if the sum adds up to 6 the player can choose to “beg” if the sum is not 6, the player cannot plea for a different card
- If the dealer accepts the plea the dealer gets one point and then turns the cards over until a card of a different suit appears. That suit then becomes the trump suit.
- If the dealer rejects the plea, the dealer tells the player to “take one” and the trump suit stays, but the player gets a point.
- Once the trump card is chosen, the game begins
- The first player will start by playing a card. The next players have to play a card of the same suit or a trump card.
- The player with the highest card value wins the hand. If a player can not follow suit then they must play a trump card. If the player has no trump cards then they can play an off suit card.
- This continues until all cards are used up. Each round you win is called a trick.
- The first team/player to reach 49 points wins
- Once play has finished the scoring begins
SCORING SYSTEM:
- A player gets 1 point for each trump card they have
- 1 point for the highest trump card
- 1 point for the lowest trump card
- 1 point for having the trump jack
- 4 points for each Ace
- 3 points for each King
- 2 points for each Jack
- 10 points for each 10
- 0 points for cards from 2 to 9
Adaptation/Chance and Probability:
- To adapt All Fours to create a more probability based game my partner and I changed one aspect of the game. Instead of freely being able to plea you have to roll a dice instead. The player must roll two dice and get a four to be able to plea. This makes the trump card (suit) harder to change, but allows for more chance and probability within the game.
Tarot Cards Created:
I am in the middle of a game of All Fours and I want to plea. What is the chance I will roll a six with two dice? What is the chance at least one player will roll a six in a round?
Calculations:
To find the probability of rolling two dice and the sum equaling six you have to multiply all the conditional probabilities. If you look to the probability tree to the right you will see were the conditional probabilities are located. This is only a partial tree, it only shows the outcome we are looking for if a one is rolled first. Instead of continuing the rest of the tree you can easily see the pattern and multiply the product of the two conditional probabilities by five.
Habits of Mathematicians:
One Habit of Mathematicians I used while solving this problem was looking for patterns. As I stated in the calculations above I was able to find a patterned that allowed me to switch to multiplication instead of drawing out the rest of the probability tree. |
Project Reflection:
During the Probability Project I feel I have grown and now understand probability. Throughout the entire project I tried to make connections and push my thinking so that I could develop a deeper understanding of the content. This allowed me to easily catch connections and relations between all the types of probability. Not only was I able to academically grow, I also learned skills and was able to keep a good work ethic. Some of the skills I further developed was time management, working in a group, and problem solving. These skills will all help me in the future. I also stated I held a good work ethic. While working on the Probability Project I tried to always stay on topic and actually work. This enabled me to get my work done by the deadlines and in good quality. Overall I feel I have grown academically and personally throughout the Probability Project.