Tell whether the following is certain to happen, impossible, can happen but not certain.
(i) You are older today than yesterday.
(ii) A tossed coin will land heads up.
(iii) A die when tossed shall land up with 8 on top.
(iv) The next traffic light seen will be green.
(v) Tomorrow will be a cloudy day.
(i) Here,
We have to categorize the situation as following:
Certain to happen which means that there is a surety of the given situation to happen
Impossible which gives a little surety that the situation would never take place
Can happen but not certain which shows that you are not sure of the situation’s happening or not happening, it may or may not take place
Therefore,
Here,
We can see that,
It is very obvious that,
You will be older than yesterday
Hence,
The given condition is certain to happen
(ii) Here,
We have to categorize the situation as following:
Certain to happen which means that there is a surety of the given situation to happen
Impossible which gives a little surety that the situation would never take place
Can happen but not certain which shows that you are not sure of the situation’s happening or not happening, it may or may not take place
Therefore,
Here,
We can see that,
It is very obvious that,
We cannot give assurance that the tossed coin would give heads. It may give head or tail.
Hence,
The given condition is can happen but not certain
(iii) Here,
We have to categorize the situation as following:
Certain to happen which means that there is a surety of the given situation to happen
Impossible which gives a little surety that the situation would never take place
Can happen but not certain which shows that you are not sure of the situation’s happening or not happening, it may or may not take place
Therefore,
Here,
We can see that,
It is very obvious that,
A die whenever tossed would never give 8 because it has only six faces marked as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 on it.
Hence,
The given condition is impossible.
(iv) Here,
We have to categorize the situation as following:
Certain to happen which means that there is a surety of the given situation to happen
Impossible which gives a little surety that the situation would never take place
Can happen but not certain which shows that you are not sure of the situation’s happening or not happening, it may or may not take place
Therefore,
Here,
We can see that,
It is very obvious that,
We cannot give assurance that the next traffic light seen would be green. It may give yellow, red or green light.
Hence,
The given condition is can happen but not certain
(v) Here,
We have to categorize the situation as following:
Certain to happen which means that there is a surety of the given situation to happen
Impossible which gives a little surety that the situation would never take place
Can happen but not certain which shows that you are not sure of the situation’s happening or not happening, it may or may not take place
Therefore,
Here,
We can see that,
It is very obvious that,
We cannot give assurance that the upcoming day will be a cloudy day. It may be a cloudy day or a sunny day or a rainy day.
Hence,
The given condition is can happen but not certain