Monk
May 25, 2017, 11:32am
11
Re: possibility and probability
Possibility of 10 head flips is exactly the same as any particular pattern of 4,5,6 head flips, which is 1/2^10.
i.e., probability of pattern HHHHHHHHHH is the same as HHHHTTTTTT. you don’t seem to be interested in order of occurances, and only the sum of results. In that case, you get the probability distribution for each sum.
there are more patterns of coin flips that add up to 4, 5 or 6 head flips, hence the probability of 4,5,6 headflips is the sum of the probabilities of all these cases.
there are 10!/(x! * (10-x)!) ways the number of heads will add up to x. this multiplied by 1/2^1024 is the probability of the sum being x.
congratulations, you have just come up on binomial distribution. should have paid attention in 8th grade math.
for about 3 sec. bring probability out of the definition you read in grade 8, and think it in real life.
I want you to flip coin 10 time.
Seriously.