3.2 - Observed Distributions

HandsOn Activities:

10. Coin Flipping

SimuLabs:

3. Wholesale Coin Flipping

No one can say with certainty what will happen next in a random process such as a coin flip. Even so, some kinds of predictions are possible and useful. If you flip 10 coins, about how many of them do you expect to come up heads? Is it possible that all 10 will come up heads? Is 10 heads in a row likely? Is it possible that all 10 will come up tails? Is 10 tails in a row likely? To start answering these questions, carry out the following activity.
                        

Q3.4: Suppose one thousand students are each given one penny. Each student flips his or her penny ten times and records the number of heads. How many out of 1000 students will flip 10 heads, how many will flip 9 heads, how many flip 8 heads, and so on? Guess the answers to these questions and fill in a copy of Table 3.1 Be prepared to describe the reasoning behind your guesses.



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