Five Coins

Finally I used five coins in my experiment. Like the previous experiments, I used Microsoft Excel to randomly select 0 or 1 for five different coins, where 0 is heads and 1 is tails. To find the frequency of heads, I added together the outcomes of each of the five coins. The possible sums were as follows: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0 (all coins landed on heads), 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1(in no particular order) = 1 (four out of five coins landed on heads), 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1(in no particular order) = 2 (three out of the five coins landed on heads), 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1(in no particular order) = 3 (two out of the five coins landed on heads), 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1(in no particular order) = 4 (one out of the five coins landed on heads), or 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 (none of the coins landed on heads). The spreadsheet below shows these frequencies, but remember that I have only shown the first few flips on this page. Heads appeared on all five coins 3 out of the 100 flips (3%). Heads appeared on four of the five coins 20 of the 100 times (20%). Heads appeared on three of the five coins 35 out of 100 times (35%). Heads appeared on two of the five coins 27 out of 100 times (27%). Heads appeared on one of the five coins 13 out of 100 times (13%). Heads appeared on none of the coins 2 out of 100 times (2%).

 

Probability of Getting 0 Heads:

Empirical: .02

Theoretical: .03125

Probability of Getting 1 Head:

Empirical: .13

Theoretical: .15625

Probability of Getting 2 Heads:

Empirical: .27

Theoretical: .3125

Probability of Getting 3 Heads:

Empirical: .35

Theoretical: .3125

Probability of Getting 4 Heads:

Empirical: .20

Theoretical: .15625

Probability of Getting 5 Heads:

Empirical: .03

Theoretical: .03125


Let's look at another simulation of the same experiment:

Probability of Getting 0 Heads:

Empirical: .02

Theoretical: .03125

Probability of Getting 1 Head:

Empirical: .14

Theoretical: .15625

Probability of Getting 2 Heads:

Empirical: .41

Theoretical: .3125

Probability of Getting 3 Heads:

Empirical: .33

Theoretical: .3125

Probability of Getting 4 Heads:

Empirical: .09

Theoretical: .15625

Probability of Getting 5 Heads:

Empirical: .01

Theoretical: .03125


 

 

Summary

Back to Flipping Coins title page