What is “odds” and how is it different from “chance”?
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Most people don’t use the terms precisely, but there is a difference. Probability is a value, the chance for a thing to happen out of all possible trials, while odds are a *ratio* between the thing happening and not happening.
For example, a coin has a 50% *chance* or *probability* to come up heads. But the *odds* of it coming up heads are 1:1 – it comes up heads just as often as it doesn’t.
A loaded coin with a 75% chance to come up heads would have 3:1 odds of landing heads – it lands heads (75%) three times as much as it doesn’t (25%).
To convert between the two: given a probability *p*, the odds are given by p : (1-p) (or if you’re doing things in percent, p : (100 – p)). Tou usually reduce this fraction if possible, so 50:50 reduces to 1:1. And given odds a:b, the probability is a / (a+b).
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