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37 votes
Tossing a coin and getting a head followed by another head.

User Neeraj Bhadani
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1 Answer

11 votes
11 votes

Explanation:

1/2

Two players, A and B, alternately and independently flip a coin and the first player to get a head wins. Assume player A flips first. If the coin is fair, what is the probability that A wins?

So A only flips on odd tosses. So the probability of winning would be

P=12+(12)212+⋯+(12)2n12

Is that right? It seems that if A only flips on odd tosses, this shouldn't matter. Either A can win on his first toss, his second toss, ...., or his nth toss. So the third flip of the coin is actually A's second toss. So shouldn't it be

P=12+(12)2+(12)3

User Chrxr
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