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You and fifty coworkers decide to play a game that consist of flipping a coin on

ID: 2955741 • Letter: Y

Question

You and fifty coworkers decide to play a game that consist of flipping a coin once for each coworker. If the flip of the coin for the particular coworker results in a head, if have to pay them $1. If it results in a tail, neither have to pay anything. Given this information and assuming the coin you are using is a fair coin (probability of getting a head or tail is equal to 0.5) using Excel, graphing calculator or the probability formula, calculate the probabilities of the following events: a) The probability that you will have to pay out exactly $20. (ex. the probability that 20 of the flips of the coin will produce heads. b) The probability that you will not have to pay anyone anything. ( the probability that none of the flips will produce heads) You and fifty coworkers decide to play a game that consist of flipping a coin once for each coworker. If the flip of the coin for the particular coworker results in a head, if have to pay them $1. If it results in a tail, neither have to pay anything. Given this information and assuming the coin you are using is a fair coin (probability of getting a head or tail is equal to 0.5) using Excel, graphing calculator or the probability formula, calculate the probabilities of the following events: a) The probability that you will have to pay out exactly $20. (ex. the probability that 20 of the flips of the coin will produce heads. b) The probability that you will not have to pay anyone anything. ( the probability that none of the flips will produce heads)

Explanation / Answer

a) The probability that you will have to pay out exactly $20. (ex. the probability that 20 of the flips of the coin will produce heads. The probability of one way (and all ways are equally likely) is .5^20 * .5^30 = .5^50 The number of ways is (50 choose 20, which is the same as 50 choose 30). Your answer is (50 choose 20)*.5^50 b) The probability that you will not have to pay anyone anything. ( the probability that none of the flips will produce heads) The probability of one way is .5^50. The number of ways to have 50 tails out of 50 tails is 50 choose 50 = 1 The answer is .5^50