Alternating tosses race to a second head
Question
Alice and Bob alternate tossing one fair coin, with Alice going first. Heads are counted separately for each player, and the first player whose own total of heads reaches two (not necessarily in a row) wins. What is the probability that Alice wins?
Short answer
. Track (Alice's heads, Bob's heads) at the start of each full round of two tosses. Solving the first-step equations: from Alice wins with probability , from with , from with , and from the value is .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
- Conditional Probability, Total Probability, and Bayes' Rule
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