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June 2020 p53 q5
3287
A pair of fair coins is thrown repeatedly until a pair of tails is obtained. On an occasion, a pair of fair coins is thrown 80 times.
Use an approximation to find the probability that a pair of tails is obtained more than 25 times.
Solution
The probability of obtaining a pair of tails in one throw of two fair coins is \(0.25\) (since there are four equally likely outcomes: HH, HT, TH, TT, and only TT is a pair of tails).
Let \(X\) be the number of times a pair of tails is obtained in 80 throws. \(X\) follows a binomial distribution with parameters \(n = 80\) and \(p = 0.25\).
We approximate this binomial distribution with a normal distribution. The mean \(\mu\) and variance \(\sigma^2\) of the binomial distribution are given by: