You flip a coin 20 times and get tails 15 times. You flip the coin 80 more times. What do you expect to happen to the experimental probability of getting tails as you increase the number of trials?
it should get closer to the theoretical probability of 1/2
The correct answer was it gets closer to 50 percent. Thank you for your help oobleck!
Is there a difference between 1/2 and 50%?
To determine what is expected to happen to the experimental probability of getting tails as you increase the number of trials, you need to calculate the experimental probability for each scenario.
Experimental probability is calculated by dividing the number of successful outcomes (in this case, the number of times you get tails) by the total number of trials.
In the first scenario, you flipped the coin 20 times and obtained tails 15 times. Therefore, the experimental probability of getting tails in that case is 15/20, which simplifies to 0.75 or 75%.
Now, you plan to flip the coin 80 more times. To find the expected experimental probability of getting tails, you need to calculate the new ratio by dividing the number of times you get tails in those additional 80 flips by the total number of trials.
Let's assume that you continue to get tails at the same rate and obtain 60 tails in the additional 80 flips. The new experimental probability can be calculated as 60/80, which simplifies to 0.75 or 75%.
This result shows that, as you increase the number of trials, the experimental probability of getting tails is expected to remain relatively stable around 75%.