Understanding the Probability of Coin Flips
Calculating the Odds of Consecutive Heads
What are the chances that Dr. Johnson flips a coin and achieves “heads” five times consecutively?
Probability Calculation
The probability of this event occurring is calculated as follows:
1/2 (for the first flip) x 1/2 (for the second flip) x 1/2 (for the third flip) x 1/2 (for the fourth flip) x 1/2 (for the fifth flip) = 1/32.
Thus, the odds of getting “heads” five times in a row is 3.125%, which is derived from (1/32 x 100).