Coin Toss Probability – Interpretation of Odds for Getting a Tail in Two Coin Flips

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Let's say someone asks me: What are the odds of getting a tail when a coin is flipped twice?

Assuming the coin is fair and tosses are independent, I see two ways of solving this problem:

  1. If we tabulate the results, we know the possible outcomes are: TT, HT, TH and HH. Therefore, the probability of getting at least one tail is 0.75.

  2. Using a more intuitive approach, when I flip a coin, the probability of getting a tail is 0.5, so I can expect to get a tail every 1/0.5 = 2 flips. So, if I flip 2 times, I expect 1 tail, so 100%.

I know right answer is 75%, but I can't find a way to properly explain why solution 2 is incorrect. Maybe there is a difference in interpretation?

Best Answer

These are answers to different questions.

$75\%$ or $0.75$ is the answer to the question "What is the probability of at least one Tail when tossing a fair coin twice". You might calculate it from your equally likely TT, HT, TH and HH outcomes using an indicator variable as $$\frac14 \times 1 + \frac14 \times 1 + \frac14 \times 1 + \frac14 \times 0 =\frac34.$$

$1$ is the answer to the question "What is the expected total number of Tails when tossing a fair coin twice". You might calculate it from your equally likely TT, HT, TH and HH outcomes using a counting variable as $$\frac14 \times 2 + \frac14 \times 1 + \frac14 \times 1 + \frac14 \times 0 =1.$$

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