A student claims that if a fair coin is tossed and comes
up heads 5 times in a row, then, according to the law
of averages, the probability of tails on the next toss
is greater than the probability of heads. What is your
reply?
1 answer
The coin has no idea what the result of previous tosses was. The probability of heads on the next toss is 0.5 unless it is an asymmetrical coin.