Eli5: If I flip a coin 10x what’s the chances that the next 10 flips will be the exact outcome of the first 10?

Question

Eli5: If I flip a coin 10x what’s the chances that the next 10 flips will be the exact outcome of the first 10?

In: Mathematics

Answer 1

If you care about the specific sequence (i.e. you need 2 heads, then three tails, then a head, then four tails, in that *specific* order), then it’s 2^10 or 1 in 1024.

However, if you don’t care about the sequence (i.e. from the above example you just want 3 heads and 7 tails), then it comes out to about 1 in 4.