Question

A coin lands heads half of the time it is tossed. Round your answers to the nearest hundredth.

a. What is the probability that the coin will land heads?



b. What is the probability that the coin will NOT land heads?



c. If the coin is tossed 5 times, what is the probability that it will land heads twice?



d. The probability that the coin will land heads either once or twice is given by P(1 or 2) = P(1) + P(2). Find the probability.

Answer 1

Hints for 3 parts of the problem.
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For part A.
Coins have no memory. Regardless of what happened before, all you are looking for is the probability for 1 coin toss (that it will land on heads).

For part B.
There are only 2 possible outcomes, so saying "it will not land on hands" is asking you for the probability that it will land on tails.
(same way/answer as part A)

For part C.
Again, coins have no memory, so disregard what happened 5 times before.
All you are looking for is "what is the probability that it will land heads twice?"
You are finding the probability with 2 DEPENDENT EVENTS, so you multiply the probability of the coin landing on heads during toss 1, and the probability of the coin landing on heads during toss 2.

Answer 2

The last part is not very hard.

* What's the probability that the coin will land on heads once (out of the 2 tosses)?

* What's the probability that the coin will land on heads twice (out of the 2 tosses)?

Answer 3

then for part D, add the 2 probabilities.