document.write( "Question 1108079: A coin is flipped four times. Find the probability of getting two heads and two tails. \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #723091 by math_helper(2461)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! Intuition says it should be 0.50, and that is unfortunately incorrect in this case.\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "There are \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "Breaking it down into groups of two:\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "HH —> Only TT can follow this \n" ); document.write( "HT —> Only HT or TH can follow this \n" ); document.write( "TH —> Only HT or TH can follow this \n" ); document.write( "TT —> Only HH can follow this\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "So out of 16 possible outcomes, only 6 have exactly two heads and two tails. \r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "The probability of getting two heads and two tails is then 6/16 = 3/8\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "— \n" ); document.write( "An alternative way to look at this: there are 4 slots for each of the 4 flips, and we want heads to occupy exactly 2 of them: C(4,2) = 4!/(2!*2!) = 24/4 = 6, and dividing by the 16 possible outcomes, that computes to a probability of 6/16 = 3/8.\r \n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |