Paying a dollar to reflip four coins
Question
Four fair coins are tossed and you are paid $1 for each head. After seeing the result you may, once, pay $1 to toss all four coins again, in which case the second toss determines your payout. Your rule is to retoss exactly when the first toss shows or heads. What is the expected value of the game under this rule?
Short answer
dollars. Keeping 2, 3 or 4 heads contributes . With probability you retoss, earning an expected minus the $1 fee, adding . Total: .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Expectation, Mean, and Variance
- Conditional Expectation and Variance Revisited
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
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