Which answer correctly describes the probability of flipping a coin twice in a row and having the coin land on heads twice?

Responses

certain
certain

even
even

impossible
impossible

likely
likely

unlikely

1 answer

To determine the probability of flipping a coin twice in a row and having it land on heads both times, we can analyze the possible outcomes.

When flipping a fair coin, there are two possible outcomes for each flip: heads (H) or tails (T). Therefore, when flipping a coin twice, the total number of possible outcomes is:

  1. HH (heads, heads)
  2. HT (heads, tails)
  3. TH (tails, heads)
  4. TT (tails, tails)

This gives us a total of 4 outcomes. Out of these outcomes, only 1 result (HH) corresponds to landing heads on both flips.

To find the probability of this event, we can use the formula for probability:

\[ \text{Probability} = \frac{\text{Number of favorable outcomes}}{\text{Total number of outcomes}} = \frac{1}{4} = 0.25 \]

This means that landing on heads twice in a row is possible but not very likely. Therefore, the correct response describing the probability of flipping a coin twice and having it land on heads twice would be:

unlikely.