For an in-class demonstration, a teacher flips a fair coin 5 times, and each of the 5 times it lands on heads. A student argues that it is more likely to land on tails on the next, or 6th, flip. Is the student correct? Explain your reasoning.

Question

Revolt · Accepted Answer

No, the student is not correct. Each flip of a fair coin is an independent event, so the outcome of previous flips does not affect the next flip. The probability of landing on tails (or heads) on the 6th flip is still 1/2.

Probability of Independent Events

For an in-class demonstration, a teacher flips a fair coin 5 times, and each of the 5 times it lands on heads. A student argues that it is more likely to land on tails on the next, or 6th, flip. Is the student correct? Explain your reasoning.

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