Question

Let's say you are playing a coin-tossing game with a friend. You toss the same coin 500 times, and 400 times it comes up heads. Would this be normal? What could explain it?

Answer 1

When flipping a fair coin, the theoretical probability of it landing on heads is 0.5. However, in the short term, the actual outcome may deviate from this expected probability. The law of large numbers states that as the number of coin tosses increases, the relative frequency of heads will tend to get closer to the theoretical probability of 0.5. So, while getting 400 heads in 500 tosses is unlikely, it is still within the realm of possibility.

Step-by-step explanation:

When flipping a fair coin, the theoretical probability of it landing on heads is 0.5. However, in the short term, the actual outcome may deviate from this expected probability. If you were to toss a coin 500 times and it came up heads 400 times, this would be considered an unusual result, but not impossible. The concept of probability explains that although each toss of the coin has a 50% chance of landing heads, there is still a possibility of getting more or less heads in a given set of tosses.

The law of large numbers states that as the number of coin tosses increases, the relative frequency of heads will tend to get closer to the theoretical probability of 0.5. In the long run, if you were to toss the coin 1000 times, for example, you would expect the number of heads to be closer to 500. So, while getting 400 heads in 500 tosses is unlikely, it is still within the realm of possibility.

Answer 2

Yes, because there is a 50 50 chance that it can land head or tails.