Lanaghan, Sharon. (2022). Math or No Match. In S. Bowen (Ed.), Math Circle Activity Database. American Institute of Mathematics.

Match or No Match

Math Circles:
In this session, participants will explore the Match-No Match game: two players each draw one chip out of a bag – if the color of the chips match Player 1 wins, if not Player 2 wins. Under what conditions is this a fair game? How do we know? How can we construct a fair game? What variations of this game are possible? Participants will explore these questions to determine how this game connects to other mathematical problems.

Activity Guide

This guide looks at the activity in detail and goes into the underlying math.