page 8, clarify that we're talking about probability
shiffman opened this issue · comments
from reader:
"The probability of a coin turning up heads three times in a row is:
(1/2) * (1/2) * (1/2) = 1/8 (or 0.125)
...meaning that a coin will turn up heads three times in a row one out of eight times (each “time” being three tosses).
Correction: that a coin will turn up heads three times in a row one out of eight times, on average, given enough trials.
If we ran, say 500 trials, we would expect to see a trial outcome of 3 consecutive heads an average one eighth of the time.
Your text gives the misleading impression that if someone were to conduct eight trials, one of them would result in the desired outcome."
ended up with:
...meaning that a coin will turn up heads three times in a row one out of eight times on average. For example if we flipped a coin three times in a row 500 times, we would expect to see an outcome of three consecutive heads an average of one eighth of the time or ~63 times.