ELIF I don’t get probability. How come the probability of getting heads in a coin toss is still 50/50 even after you have had tails for straight five times a row. Shouldn’t the probability of getting tails six times in a row be lesser than getting a head this time?
In: Mathematics
Think of it this way – the coin doesn’t “know” what was thrown the past 5 times. It only knows it had two options here, heads or tails, both equally likely.
The likelihood of getting tails 6 times in a row is lower than 50:50 because on *each* throw you’re getting a 50% chance at heads. So for all those throws to align is pretty unlikely. But the coin doesn’t “know” that. It just knows it’s two options – heads or tails; 50:50 chance.
The 6 tails in a row is sort of a meta probability compared to the individual coin tosses.
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