[Blindmath] Seemingly basic math question involving probability
Matthew_2010
Matthew_2010 at charter.net
Wed Sep 30 22:55:48 UTC 2009
Alright all, I'm embarrassed to ask but here goes.
Yesterday one of my kids asked me to help with a math problem he couldn't
work out and its been driving me a little crazy, so here I am. He was asked
to determine the probability of flipping a coin and getting heads on first
flip, heads on second flip, and tails on third flip. I'm thinking that
because these are independent events its a matter of multiplying 1/3 * 1/3 *
1/3. Therefore, the answer is that there is a 4% chance of flipping 3 times
and getting this pattern.
The part of the problem that's bugging me is the tails part. Shouldn't this
be a different probability since its the third flip and specified as tails?
In other words, if the third flip was heads it wouldn't change the
probability at all since they would all be equal (1/3). What role does a
third tails flip play in the matter? (Hmm).
Matthew
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