No heads in a Poisson number of fair tosses
Question
Let , and toss a fair coin times. The probability that none of the tosses land heads can be written as with rational. Find .
Short answer
. The number of heads is a thinned Poisson, so it is Poisson with mean , and . Equivalently, .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Defining the Poisson Process: Three Equivalent Constructions
- Conditional Probability, Total Probability, and Bayes' Rule
- Worked Examples — Probability Trees, Monty Hall, and Bayesian Updating
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