Probability: A
coin is tossed twice.
(a) Indicate
a sample space for this experiment.
(b) Indicate
also a sample space for the number of heads obtained.
Solutions
(a) A
coin has two sides, heads and tails. If the coin is
tossed once, then either H (heads)
or T (tails)
could occur. If it is tossed
twice, both heads could occur. Both tails could occur also.
Likewise, either heads or tails could occur on either toss. The
appropriate sample space S for
this experiment would be the set of possible outcomes, being S
= {TT, HH, TH, HT}. Both
letters together represent the possibilities of the first and
second toss.
(b) For
the number of heads, there could be 1 (one)
on the first toss and 1 on
the second, making it 2 heads.
There could also be
1 on
the first and 0 (none)
on the second. Vice versa, there could be 0 on
the first and 1 on
the second. There could even be 0
on both tosses. The
sample space then for this would be S
= {2, 1, 0}. |