Three people all stopping within two tosses
Question
Each of three people tosses a coin that lands heads with probability , stopping at their first tails. What is the probability that nobody needs more than two tosses?
Short answer
. One person finishes within two tosses unless the first two are both heads, so the chance is . By independence the answer is .
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Random Variables and Probability Mass Functions
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
- Conditional Probability, Total Probability, and Bayes' Rule
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