Question

Lita has a coin with heads on one side and tails on the other side. She is going to flip it in the air three times. What is the probability of the coin landing tails up on the first flip and heads up twice on the last two flips? P(Tails, then heads, then heads) Write as a simplified fraction.

Answer 1

1/8

Explanation:

Answer 2

The probability is 1/8

Explanation:

In this question, we are tasked with calculating that if a coin is flipped three times, we have the outcome in the question; THH

Now before we go on to calculate this probability, we need to understand some technicalities. Flipping a coin can only result into two outcomes as there are only two sides of a coin. These are the head and the tail. What this means is that if a coin is flipped, we should only expect landing on the head and on the tail.

Now these opposite sides have equal probability. This means the probability of landing on the head = probability of landing on the tail. These probabilities are equal as they are the only two options we have. Hence, the probabilities are 1/2 each

Hence, P(H) = P(T) = 1/2

Now, we proceed to calculating the probability of HTT

this mathematically means P(H) * P(T) * P(T) = 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 = 1/8