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Consider the experiment: pick a card from a regular 52-card deck and record the suit, then toss a fair coin and record heads or tails. how many outcomes are possible?

a. 8
b. 52
c. 104
d. 2
e. other

1 Answer

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Final answer:

In the experiment of drawing a card from a deck and tossing a fair coin, there are 52 outcomes from the deck and 2 from the coin toss, resulting in 104 total possible outcomes.

Step-by-step explanation:

The experiment consists of two independent events: selecting a card from a regular 52-card deck and tossing a fair coin. To determine the total number of possible outcomes, we calculate the product of the number of outcomes for each event. There are 52 possible outcomes for drawing a card as there are 52 cards in a deck. There are 2 possible outcomes for flipping a coin (heads or tails). Multiplying these gives us 52 × 2, which equals 104. Therefore, for this experiment, there are 104 possible outcomes.

This conclusion aligns with the concept of the sample space in probability, which is the set of all possible outcomes of an experiment. For example, if one were to flip two fair coins, the sample space would be {HH, HT, TH, TT}, where H represents heads and T represents tails. In this case, the individual outcomes HT and TH are unique, illustrating that the order of the events matters in the sample space. The principle of multiplying to find the total outcomes can be easier seen in smaller experiments, like flipping one coin and rolling one six-sided die, which results in 2 × 6 = 12 outcomes.

Given the information provided and the calculation of outcomes, the correct answer to this student's question is option c, 104 outcomes.

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