How Fair is This?

Level 1

When I throw 2 fair coins, the most likely outcome is that they will give 1 head and 1 tail.

So on average, I will need to throw 2 fair coins to get at least 1 head and at least 1 tail?

Note: Read the question above carefully.

No Yes

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

1 solution

Jordan Cahn
Nov 28, 2018

It is impossible to get one head and one tail on only one throw, so you have to throw at least two coins to get the desired result. However, it is not guaranteed to happen in two throws; indeed, it will only happen half the time. Thus, half the time you must throw more than twice, so the average number of throws must be greater than two.

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...