Palindromic coin flips

Probability Level pending

Given 11 flips of a fair coin, the probability of getting a palindromic sequence is a b \frac {a}{b} . What is ( a + b ) 2 (a+b)^{2} ?

Details and assumptions
1.A palindromic sequence is a series of coin flips that are palindromic, such as TTTTT, HTHTHTH or HHTTHHTTTTHHTTHH.
2.The sequence does not matter (i.e TTTHTTT=TTTHTTT)


The answer is 1089.

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1 solution

Vikas Nigam
Mar 23, 2014

It doesn't matter what you get on the first 6 flips because the palindrome starts to take shape from the 7 t h 7^{th} flip onwards. The outcome of the 7 t h 7^{th} flip should be same as the outcome of the 5 t h 5^{th} flip. The probability for this is 1 2 \frac{1}{2} . Then the outcome of 8 t h 8^{th} flip should be same as the outcome of the 4 t h 4^{th} flip. Again the probability is 1 2 \frac{1}{2} . And so on. So the probability of getting a complete palindrome is ( 1 2 ) 5 = 1 32 (\frac{1}{2})^{5} = \frac{1}{32} Hence, ( a + b ) 2 = 1 , 089 (a+b)^2=1,089

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