MathBench > Probability

Laws of AND and OR

And now with coins ...

 

Why do biology teachers like to talk about flipping coins so much? Sorry, no punchline here – the reason is that flipping a coin is alot like meiosis.

 

What I mean is, when the cell divides to make sperm or eggs, the genetic material also divides. The original cell had two copies of each gene (in other words, two alleles), but the gamete only gets one. Basically, the original cell could have "flipped a coin" to determine which copy the gamete ended up with. And since this happens in both the mother and the father, its similar to two coins being flipped and the results tallied.

So with that in mind...

If you flip two coins, what are the chances that both will come up heads?

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I think I have the answer: 1/4

If you flip two coins, what are the chances that you will get one head and one tail?

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I think I have the answer: 1/2

coin toss

If you flip two coins, what are the chances that you won't get two tails?

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I think I have the answer: 3/4