Final answer:
The odds for getting exactly 1 tail when flipping 2 fair coins are 1 to 1, because there are two desired outcomes (HT, TH) and two other outcomes (HH, TT), making the probability of exactly 1 tail equal to 0.5.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking for the odds for getting exactly 1 tail when flipping 2 fair coins. To determine these odds, we need to consider all the possible outcomes when two coins are flipped. There are four possible outcomes: HH (both heads), HT (first head, second tail), TH (first tail, second head), and TT (both tails).
To get exactly 1 tail, we look at the outcomes HT and TH. Since we have two such outcomes out of four possible outcomes, the probability of getting exactly 1 tail is ⅓ or 0.5. The odds for an event are calculated as the probability of the event happening divided by the probability of the event not happening. The odds against are the inverse of this.
In this case, the odds for getting exactly 1 tail are the same as its probability since the probability of not getting exactly 1 tail is also 0.5. Therefore, the odds for getting exactly 1 tail are 1 to 1, and consequently, the odds against are also 1 to 1.