Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-coin-flip-conundrum-po-shen-loh When you flip a coin to make a decision, there's...
========== When the Wright brothers
had to decidewho would be the first to
fly their new airplaneoff a sand dune,
they flipped a coin.That was fair:we all know there’s an equal chance
of getting heads and tails.But what if they had
a more complicated contest?What if they flipped coins repeatedly,so that Orville would win as soon as
two heads showed up in a row on his coin,and Wilbur would win as soon as heads
was immediately followed by tails on his?Would each brother still have had an equal
chance to be the first in flight?At first, it may seem they’d still have
the same chance of winning.There are four combinations
for two consecutive flips.And if you do flip a coin just twice,there’s an equal chance
of each one -- 25%.So your intuition might tell you
that in an...
