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 Q49  V32
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Re: Probability [#permalink]
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czarczar wrote:
hi fluke thanks for the reply.

I also made these two cases. The way I did try to solve it was that total outcomes =64.

favourable HTHTHT = factorial 6/ fact 3 * fact 3 and same goes for THTHTH.

and it results in 40/64 = 5/8.

could you please tell me what is wrong with my approach?


HTHTHT:
6!/(3!)(3!) will give you number of arrangements of 3 Heads And 3 Tails, but our intention is not that.

With your approach, we'll have all these undesired arrangement considered:
HHHTTT
HHTTTH
TTHHTH
...

20 arrangements like this. And again; when you considered THTHTH, it is again the same thing. 3 T's and 3 H's. We don't want that.

We just want these two arrangements:
THTHTH
HTHTHT
Because only in these 2 arrangements will the Head and Tail alternate and no two consecutive tosses will be same, rest anything will result in at least one consecutive set.

So, the desired arrangements are only 2.

If we talk about possible arrangements, then we have 64 of those.

Probability=Desired/Possible
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Re: Probability [#permalink]
fluke wrote:
czarczar wrote:
hi fluke thanks for the reply.

I also made these two cases. The way I did try to solve it was that total outcomes =64.

favourable HTHTHT = factorial 6/ fact 3 * fact 3 and same goes for THTHTH.

and it results in 40/64 = 5/8.

could you please tell me what is wrong with my approach?


HTHTHT:
6!/(3!)(3!) will give you number of arrangements of 3 Heads And 3 Tails, but our intention is not that.

With your approach, we'll have all these undesired arrangement considered:
HHHTTT
HHTTTH
TTHHTH
...

20 arrangements like this. And again; when you considered THTHTH, it is again the same thing. 3 T's and 3 H's. We don't want that.

We just want these two arrangements:
THTHTH
HTHTHT
Because only in these 2 arrangements will the Head and Tail alternate and no two consecutive tosses will be same, rest anything will result in at least one consecutive set.

So, the desired arrangements are only 2.

If we talk about possible arrangements, then we have 64 of those.

Probability=Desired/Possible



Thanks a lot fluke!!!! :)

Everything is crystal clear now.
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Re: Probability [#permalink]
thanks Raghava747. :)
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Re: Probability [#permalink]
HTHTHT
THTHTH

number of desirable outcomes = 2
total outcomes = 2^6 = 64

=>desired outcome probability = 2/64 = 1/32



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