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A fair coin is flipped three times. What is the probability that the coin lands on heads exactly twice?
  • a)
    1/8
  • b)
    3/8
  • c)
    1/2
  • d)
    5/8
  • e)
    7/8
Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
A fair coin is flipped three times. What is the probability that the c...
There are 2 possible outcomes on each flip: heads or tails. Since the coin is flipped three times, there are 2 × 2 × 2 = 8 total possibilities: HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, TTT, TTH, THT, THH.
Of these 8 possibilities, how many involve exactly two heads? We can simply count these up: HHT, HTH, THH. We see that there are 3 outcomes that involve exactly two heads. Thus, the correct answer is 3/8.
Alternatively, we can draw an anagram table to calculate the number of outcomes that involve exactly 2 heads.

The top row of the anagram table represents the 3 coin flips: A, B, and C. The bottom row of the anagram table represents one possible way to achieve the desired outcome of exactly two heads. The top row of the anagram yields 3!, which must be divided by 2! since the bottom row of the anagram table contains 2 repetitions of the letter H.
There are 3!/2! = 3 different outcomes that contain exactly 2 heads.
The probability of the coin landing on heads exactly twice is (# of two-head results) ÷ (total # of outcomes) = 3/8.
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