In his colourful, futuristic workshop, Hamza faces the camera. On the left, a large porthole allows a view on city skyscrapers. Below it is Hamza's desk on rollers, whose bottom structure features the word "look" spelled in wooden capital letters on a pink background. On his other side stands a light blue machine shaped like a robot with a screen for a head. Hamza is in his thirties with short dark hair, and wears a striped orange bowtie over a dark blue shirt with rolled up sleeves.

Hamza flips a coin and says Okay. Heads! Tails?
Let's try it again. Tails!
Heads? What are the odds I'm
ever going to get this right? To
find out, we'll meet a big card.

A smiling blond man dressed like a playing card joker, wearing a black muff around his neck and a large Jack of hearts on his chest comes in.

In a French accent, he says I am Jacques Descartes.

Hamza says Yeah. You're the one I
needed to win Go Fish yesterday.
Launch powerful rockets you can
build at home, and discover an
unbelievable scientific fact.

He is shown carrying out an experiment with a young boy and girl.

The girl, Alex, approaches a blond young woman sitting on a bench with friends, and says When's your birthday?

The Woman says Mine is November 9th.

The boy, Ethan, says Oh! We have a match.

Hamza says On
Look... Kool.

A giant water balloon explodes.
An animated drawing shows a factory-like structure.
(Circus-like Theme Music plays)

Hamza pops up in front of the camera and puts on his dark glasses.
Through a giant pair of glasses, the factory structure is seen as colourful geometrical shapes. The shapes fall and land on an open park grassland. They then assemble into a cubist city with tall buildings, and an orange and yellow hot air balloon in the background. the city grows, incorporating playgrounds and public areas. In the sky, against white clouds, the series title reads "Look Kool" in blue, orange, purple, brown, yellow and green capitals.

The light blue Kool Cat toaster robot appears on a tray with six coloured dice on it.
(Kool Cat meows.)

Hamza tosses a coin and says Heads!
Tails again. How is this
possible? That's, like, 10
in a row now! Kool Cat and I
are playing flip the coin. And
so far, he's won every time.
(Kool Cat laughs.)
Maybe I need some old fashioned
lucky charms like this 4-leaf
clover, and this horseshoe.

He picks up the lucky charms.
(Lively tango music plays)

Hamza says Okay, okay. One more.
One more. Let's go. Heads!
Tails again. How is this
possible? That's like,
10 in a row, now!

Jacques Descartes pops in through a door and says It looks
like you could use some help.

Hamza says Who are you?

I am Jacques Descartes.
Perhaps you remember me from
your deck of cards, no?

Hamza says Yeah. You're the one I
needed to win Go Fish yesterday.
Now you decide to show up?

Jacques says As you know, you play me
for probability. I do
not make the rules.

With a suspicious look, Hamza says Probability? What's that?

Jacques says Probability is a type of math
that helps predict how likely
something is to happen.

Hamza says Wait. You mean, math
can tell me how likely it is
I'll get the card I need in
Go Fish? Or win a coin toss?

Jacques says Yes. We
cards know about it, but we play
games of chance all day long.

Hamza says Can you tell me
why Kool Cat keeps winning?

Jacques says I know
exactly why Kool Cat keeps
winning. And maybe you'll figure
it out for yourself, eh? (chuckles)

Hamza says Okay. Can you tell me
how probability works?

An equation appears that reads "P equals Wanted Outcomes over Possible Outcomes."

Jacques says Of course!
Probability is the number of
outcomes you want divided by
the number of possible outcomes.

Hamza says Oh, okay. So... I want
heads, and there are only
2 possible outcomes, heads or
tails. So that's 1 divided by 2,
which is the same as one half.
So, technically, it should be
on heads half the time, right?

A blue slate shows one coin with the caption "1 wanted outcome" and two coins with the caption "2 possible outcomes." It reassembles as the sign for "one half."

Hnamza says So it should be on heads half the time, right?

Jacques says You're right. It should!

Hamza says But even with my lucky
4-leaf clover and horseshoe,
Kool Cat keeps winning.

Jacques says Luck
has nothing to do with it.

A 4-Leaf-Clover walks across the screen and says Oh boy,
I feel lucky today.

A shoe descends on it.
(squashing, sticking)

Messed up, it says Oh! I should have brought
my lucky horseshoe.

A horseshoe falls on it.

Waving, it says Oh, man!

Hamza says Can you use probability
to predict anything
other than games?

Jacques says Yes, absolutely. I mean,
probability can tell you how
likely it is that you'll find a
pearl in an oyster. 1 in 12,000.
Or how likely it is that
a family will have triplets.
1 in 44,000. Or it can tell you
how likely it is that a grown-up
person will go to the emergency
room with a pogo stick injury.
1 in 115,300.

A fast clip shows all the events and their probabilities.
(crash)

Hamza says So, probability is
an exact way to look at things.

Jacques shakes his head and says It is not exact. But it does
show you how likely or unlikely
it is to happen.

Hamza says Oh, yeah. I mean,
If something's unlikely, that
doesn't mean it's impossible.
I mean, unlikely things
happen all the time.

Hamza's image dissolves and is replaced by Hamza in a pink pig's costume with wings, accompanied by other flying pigs. Pigs fly in formation.
(Lyrical music plays)

"Not until pigs fly
That's what they say
When something's unlikely
But I'm here today
Flapping my wings
On the way to the sun
The odds were 200
Trillion billion to 1
But just because it's rare
Doesn't mean it's not done
I said just because it's rare
Doesn't mean it's not done
Oink oink oink!
Oink oink oink!
Oink oink oink!
Sometimes a river
Is backwards flow-ink
Sometimes a turtle
Is not so slow-ink
Sometimes in summer
It starts snow-ink
And now that
You're all know-ink
I really must be go-ink
Oink oink oink!
Oink oink oink!
Oink oink oink!"

Hamza says So do you think Kool Cat
winning 10 times in a row
is just pure luck?

Jacques Descartes says Ha! I think
that's awfully improbable.

Hamza says Yeah! Me too. So,
what else can you tell me
about probability?

Jacques says Oh, here is one of my
favourite things. If you have
a room of 23 people, there is
a 1 in 2 chance that 2 of them
will have the same birthday.

Hamza says Now, that doesn't sound
right. I mean, there's 23 people
and 365 days in a year.

A blue slate compares the numbers.

Jacques says I deal in probability.
I know what I am talking about.

Hamza says Okay, okay. No offense,
monsieur. But I think I'm going
to have the investigators
check this out.
(Suspenseful music plays)

A slate in colourful capital letters, accompanied by a magnifying glass, reads "Investigation."

Well, suit yourself.

Hamza, standing in front of his studio screen, says Investigation.
Hi, Investigators!

Alexandra and Ethan wave and say Hi, Hamza!

Hamza says Alexandra, Ethan. I have a
question for you. A typical year
has 365 days, right?

Alexandra says Yeah.

Ethan says Right.

Hamza says So, how many different
birthday dates could there be
in the year?

Alexandra and Ethan say 365?

Hamza says Exactly! So how many
people do you think you'd have
to ask before you'd find 2
with the same birthday?

Alexandra says Well, I think
we should divide it in 2,
because we need 2 persons.

Ethan says Or, 185?

Alexandra says Yeah, about that.

Hamza says You know, I think it
would take a lot of people, too.
But I have a buddy here who
thinks you'd need a lot less.
Let's test it.
Ask people their birthdays
until you find a match.

The Investigators says We're on it!

Ethan goes up to some kids and their teachers and says We're doing a TV show on probability, and we're
wondering when your birthday is?

A Woman says The 14th of February.

Alex says What's your birthday?

Another Woman says March 24th.

Alexandra puts the mike near a little poodle puppy and says When's your
birthday? Come on, tell me!

His owner says He only speaks French.

Alexandra says Oh!

A computer voice gives the answer, and on a blue slate a line graph draws a half-parabolic curve, peaking at 99.9 percent, then flattening out.

The Computer voice says According to the
laws of probability, in a room
with 23 people, it's more than
50 percent certain that at least 2
will have the same birthday.
With 30 people it's 75 percent, and
with 70 it's 99 percent. By doing
lots of experiments like these,
we can see that the laws
of probability work.

Ethan says And you?

Another Woman says May the 18th.

Another Woman says May 26th.

Another Woman says September 6th.

Another Woman says February 22nd.

Another Woman says August 28th.

Another says May the 18th.

Ethan says We got 2!

Hamza says Wow!

Alexandra says Alright, thank you!

Hamza says How many did it take?

Alexandra counts and says 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12... 13!

Ethan says Just 13!

Alexandra says Yeah. A lot less
than we thought.

Hamza says That's a lot less than
we both thought! We'll catch up
with the investigators later.
But the probability that I'm
blown away by this is 100 percent!

Jacques says Ah-ha!
I knew he'd see it my way.

Hamza says Probability says that a
coin should land heads half the
time, right? So maybe I'll just
stick to heads, and maybe Kool
Cat's coin will land on heads
a bunch of times in a row.

Jacques says Excusez-
moi! Hold your horses!
You've fallen for the Monte
Carlo Fallacy. Go Fish.

The Monte Carlo what-acy?

Jacques says Fallacy.
It's when something is not true.
In this particular case, it is
the idea that if you have bad
luck, your luck has to change.
The probability of flipping
a coin to tails 10 times is...
It's small. But the probability
of each individual flip is the
exact same every time you flip
it...

Jacques asks the cat and says Do you have any 3s?

Hamza says I guess I still have a lot
more to learn about probability.

(fun music plays)
A Rubik Cube assembles Kool Cat'simage.
The outline of a whiskered cat's face featuring multi-coloured cogs in its brain reads "Brain Bender."

Hamza says Brain Bender. Today's puzzle
solvers are Evan and Alyssa. Hello!

On the screen, Evan and Alyssa wave and say Hi, Hamza!

Hamza says Our brain bender
is going to be a bit dicey!
You see a pair of dice, right?

Evan and Alyssa says Yeah.

Hamza says There are 12 cups.
Each cup represents a number you
could roll with a pair of dice.
Here's the Brain Bender.
If you roll a pair of dice
a lot of times, which of these
12 numbers do you think
you'll get most often?
(Fast music plays)

Alyssa says 5.

Evan says 4, maybe.

Hamza says Well, let's find out.

Rolling, Evan says 4.

Rolling, Alyssa says 6.

Evan says 7. 10.

7. 6 and 7s are in the lead.

Hamza says It looks like they're
on a roll! We'll check back
with them later.

In a cartoon landscape, a blue and a yellow Kool Cat race each other, emerging from a tunnel and breasting the tape together. A caption reads "Challenge."

Hamza stands on a sports field with two girls and two boys in yellow and blue team jerseys.

He says Challenge! Welcome to the
Look Kool probability carnival!
And to my right I have Keana
and Zachary. Team Yellow!

Team Yellow do a handclap and say Team Yellow!

Hamza says And on my left I have
Eleni and Donato. Team Blue!

Team Blue do a handclap and say Team Blue!

Hamza says First up, we have
the ball toss. But, be warned!
One of these clowns is
the dreaded clown of doom!
Whoever knocks it over will face
dire consequences! Zachary,
you get to go first.

Zachary throws and a sign reads "Safe."
Oh! Let's take a closer look at
this with my Mind's Eyeglasses. (puts them on)

The Computer says Now that one of the
8 clowns has been eliminated,
the probability of hitting the
clown of doom becomes 1 in 7.

A caption reads "1 in 7."

Hamza says Whoa!
Now it's Team Blue's turn.

Eleni throws and a sign reads "Safe."

Eleni says Yes!

The caption changes to "1 in 6."

Hamza says Woo-hoo!

The Computer says With every safe
shot, the danger increases.
The probability is now 1 in 5.

The caption changes to "1 in 5."

Hamza says Alright, Donato.

He throws, then two others.

Hamza says Oh! Keana, the probability is?

Keana says 1 out of 2.

Hamza says One of these is
the clown of doom. Let's
find out which one it is.

The clown topples and a sign reads "Safe."

Hamza says Woo-hoo! Donato, what do you
think is the probability that
that is the clown of doom? (Points at the last remaining clown)

Donato says 1 out of 1.

Hamza says I'm pretty sure
you're right. Oh! There it is!
(Siren sounding)

Donato says Oh! Oh!

Hamza says Well, I think the
probability of this challenge
getting wetter is really high
when we get back!

Balls explode water balloons hanging in nets.

In the studio, Hamza flips a coin and says Oh, heads! If it's heads half
the time I flip the coin, how
come Kool Cat keeps winning?
Oh well! Let's see how
the Brain Bender's going.

Evan says The last roll
of the game is...

Alyssa says 5!

Evan says 5.

Hamza says Okay, it's time to count up
how many tokens are in each cup.

Evan says 12...
we have 4.
6... 10.
3, 7 and 8.
Wow, we've got a lot! 15.

Alyssa says In 6 we have 13.
In 5 we have 7.
4... 5. 6! In 2, we only have 1.
And in 1... nothing.

Evan says You know, it's actually
impossible to get a 1,
because there's 2 dice.

Hamza says So, tell me which one
actually had the most.

Evan and Alyssa together say 7.

Hamza says Do you know why?

Evan says No.

Hamza says Why do you think
they call it lucky number 7?

Maybe because 7 always wins?

A really good answer, I think.

Hamza says Probably!
Thanks, Evan. Thanks, Alyssa.

Evan and Alyssa says Bye, Hamza!

Hamza rolls two dice and says There you go! 7.
I'm going to see if there's a
mathematical explanation behind
"lucky 7." If I have 2 dice,
how many different ways
can I roll 7?

A Kool Cat disintegrates into its components. A caption reads "Deconstruct." It comes together again.

Hamza says Deconstruct. Deconstruct! Whoa!

A pair of dice rolls in the air, forming sevens with different combinations.

A "Lucky Triangle" forms with the numbers of combinations forming each throw result.

Hamza says Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
There are a lot of possible
combinations to make 7.
Oh! And look. There's a pattern
to the combinations. There's 1
way to make 2, 2 ways to make 3,
3 ways to make 4, 4 ways to make
5, 5 ways to make 6, and 6 ways
to make 7. The number of
possibilities increases by 1
until you get to 7. And then
it decreases for every number
after that, until you get to 12.
Hey, it makes a triangle!
So "lucky 7" is actually just
the most likely number that
you can roll with 2 dice.
It's not really luck at all.

Walking along, a 4-Leaf Clover says Oh, boy!
I feel lucky today!

Clouds gather and it rains.
(Thunder)
Uh-oh!

A lightning bolt hits it.
(Crash)

Lying on the ground, it produces a horseshoe and says I guess I shouldn't have carried this big hunk of metal
in a thunderstorm.

The clouds form again.
(Another bolt hits)

It says Oh no!
Oh, man!
(Lively music plays)

A slate in colourful capital letters, accompanied by a magnifying glass, reads "Investigation."

Hamza says Investigation.

A woman says My birthday's November 21st.

Ethan chases a pigeon and says When's your birthday!
No, don't go! Wait!

A man says November 16th.

Ethan says And you?

A Woman says November 9th.

Another Woman says 10th of March

A Girl says 22nd of November.

A Woman says Mine is November 9th.

Ethan says Oh, we have a match.

Hamza says Okay! How many people
did it take to get a birthday
match this time?

Alexandra says 37. That's not a lot.
Compared to what we thought.

Alexandra says Yeah. 180 compared
to 37? That's nothing.

Hamza says Neither try took 180 people.

Ethan and Alexandra say No.

Alexandra says Not even close.

The Computer says The probability
of finding a match after asking
13 people is only 19 percent.
That is somewhat unlikely. The
probability of finding a match
after 37 people is 85 percent. Very
likely. After asking only
60 people, you are almost
certain to have a match.

On a blue slate, the parabolic line graph levels off at sixty people.

Hamza says The number of people is a lot
lower than we thought. Ready
to do some rocket science now?

Ethan and Alexandra say Yeah!

Alexandra says Big time!

A cartoon animation shows a toast popping out of Kool Cat and landing in front of it, with a pawprint sign on it reading "Hands-On."

On a light blue slate with rays radiating from the middle, small square photo portraits show university students.

Hamza says Hands-On. Justin
studies both science and
engineering. He plans to be a
doctor and use his skills to
help people all over the world.

Justin stands with Alexandra and Ethan in a lab, and says So today we're going
to be doing an experiment about
probability. And the way that
we're going to do that is by
launching antacid rockets. And
every time they launch, you're
going to tell me the time and
I'm going to plot it on this
graph right here that says the
number of rockets on the Y axis
and the number of seconds it
took to launch on the X axis.
We're going to put our lab
goggles on. You've got your
antacid tablet. You're going
to pop it in there (indicates a plastic tube with a cap),
let in the water. There we go. Oh,
it's fizzing! It's fizzing!
Shake, shake, shake!
Okay, put it upside down!

The tube pops and hits the roof.
(pop)
Whoa!

Alexandra says 5 seconds.

5 seconds. Okay.
Shake, shake! Big step back.
(pop)
Whoa!

That was 10 seconds.

Okay. Put it upside down.
(pop)

Ethan says Where did it go?

Alexandra says 10 seconds again.

Justin says Here we go.
(pop)

It's surprising me every time.

Alexandra says About 20 seconds.
I think it's going to be
a little bit longer.

Justin says So now that we're done
launching all of our rockets,
this graph is showing that at
10 seconds, there were a lot of
rockets that launched, right?
Because we have a whole bunch
of dots there. Were there a lot
that launched after 10 seconds?

Alexandra says Not quite a lot.

Justin draws a parabolic curve on the graph paper and says What this actually introduces
is the idea of a bell curve. And
what it looks like is a bell,
in the end. And what it shows us
is that things that are higher
on the bell are more probable.

Alexandra says Yeah.

Over a clip of a popcorn machine, The Computer says To be more certain
of when something is probably
going to happen, like the
average time it takes to pop
popcorn, it is best to do
many tests to get
an accurate bell curve.

Justin says Now I've got something
really cool to show you.

He turns a prepared set of capped tubes upside down, and they stand at a distance. Under the image, on a blue slate, a red line shows time passing and a bell curve above shows the number of explosions.
(constant popping)

Here we go. Back, back here...
Just watch it. Oh, there's 1!
Okay, 2!

Ethan and Alexandra say 3... 4...
5... 6...
7... 8, 9, 10, 11...

Justin says Whoa!

Ethan says They're all popping.

Justin says Here they go!
Yeah, yeah! Wow!
It's raining rockets.
Are they going to keep going?
Yeah. So you've been watching,
right? There was a few,
and then a whole bunch. And now,
there are just a couple.

Hamza says I see! Using more samples
created a more accurate bell
curve. Nice job investigators!
What did you discover?

Ethan says Well, I'm cool with launching
1,000 of these rockets because
I know it will just make my
bell curve even more accurate.

Alexandra says Yeah.

Hamza says Thanks, investigators.
Thank you, Justin!

Ethan and Alexandra says Bye!

In a cartoon landscape, a blue and a yellow Kool Cat race each other, emerging from a tunnel and breasting the tape together. A caption reads "Challenge."

Hamza says Challenge! Welcome back
to the Look Kool probability
carnival. Team Blue, Team
Yellow... Are you pumped?

Both Teams say Yeah!

Half-filled water balloons in nets appear.

Hamza says Excellent! Because in
this part of the challenge we're
going to see which team can pump
the most air into the balloon
without popping it. Of course,
you're going to need to have an
idea of how many pumps a balloon
can take before it pops, so I've
made a probability scale to
guide you. I discovered it was
highly unlikely that any balloon
would pop between 0 and 9 pumps
of air. But after 15 pumps it
became likely. Not all of them
broke, but some did.
After 15 pumps the balloons
were very likely to burst,
and most did.
And once I got to 27 pumps,
every balloon popped.
It was definite!

Balloons pop repeatedly, spraying their water contents on a Hamza wearing a pink sou'wester.

Wearing a multi-coloured cotton wool wig, Hamza continues
So it's a game of chicken. Each
team gets to pump. The more air
you pump, the more points you
win. But be careful! Burst your
balloon and you lose. Alright,
Team Blue. 6 pumps. Let's go!

They all wear multi-coloured wigs. One team member pumps, whie the other sits under the balloon.

Everyone says 2... 3...
4... 5... 6!

Hamza says Team Yellow, 6 pumps.

Everyone says 1... 2... 3... 4...
5... 6!

Hamza says 3 more pumps.
1... 2... 3!
1... 2... 3!
That brings us up to 9 pumps.
Any more than this,
and we leave the safe zone.
Let's take a closer look at this
with my Mind's Eyeglasses. (Pops them on)

The Computer says We cannot know the
exact outcome of this
challenge, because the
structure of each balloon might
be slightly different, and
challengers might pump slightly
different amounts of air
depending on how hard they
pump. This is why we say
something is "likely" or "unlikely."

Hamza says We are now at 12. It's
becoming more and more likely.
19... 20... 21...
22...23...24...
Hamza says Woo! Woo! Oh, we have a winner!
And unfortunately,
Donato gets soaked again. Team
Yellow takes it with 24 pumps!
Congratulations!

Keana, with a handclap, says Team Yellow!

Hamza says Well, that was nerve
wracking. Congratulations to
both teams. You get to keep your
clown wigs to remind you of
the time you lived "on the edge."

Donato says Oh, we've got
a gift for you, too.

Hamza sits munching candy under the balloon and says Not very likely.
Nothing's going to happen.
Can I have some more?
(Balloon bursts)
(laughs)

Hamza says This tastes good. Do you guys
want this? No? Okay.

In the studio, with Kool Cat, he says I think I've still got
some water in my ears.
But at least I understand
probability a lot better,
which is why I think I can beat
Kool Cat at one more coin flip.

The 4-Leaf Clover jumps up on the table and says Are you
feeling lucky, punk?

Hamza says I've got something better
than luck, punk. I've got math. (blows)

The 4-Leaf Clover falls off the table and says Whoa!
I'm starting to feel
a little unlucky.

The horseshoe lands on it.
It says Oh, man!

Hamza says Alright, Kool Cat.
What do you say to one more
coin flip? The loser has to do
the winner's chores for a week. Deal?
(Kool Cat nods and meows.)

Hamza says Let her flip. Tails!
Ha, it's tails! I got you!
(Kool Cat meows.)
You want to know how I knew it
would be tails this time around?
The probability of it landing
tails so many times in a row
was so low that I figured
Kool Cat was probably
playing a trick on me.
(Kool Cat laughs.)
That coin was tails
on both sides, wasn't it?

The coin spins showing tails twice.

Hamza says I mean, it was a pretty funny
trick. But now you've got to do
all my chores for a week.
See you next time
for more
Look Kool.
(Kool Cat meows.)
No! No, I wasn't kidding.
Those were the rules.

Circus music plays.
The end credits roll.

TVO Kids and Bell Fund logos.

Apartment 11 Productions.