2013 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 8

Problem

A fair coin is tossed 3 times. What is the probability of at least two consecutive heads?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac18 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ \frac14 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ \frac38 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ \frac12 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ \frac34$

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/6xNkyDgIhEE?t=44

Solution 1

First, there are $2^3 = 8$ ways to flip the coins, in order.

The ways to get no one head are HTH and THH.

The way to get three consecutive heads is HHH.

Therefore, the probability of flipping at least two consecutive heads is $\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ \frac38}$ .

Solution 2

Let's figure it out by complementary counting.

First, there are $2^3 = 8$ ways to flip the coins, in order. Secondly, what we don't want are the ways without getting two consecutive heads: TTT, HTH, and THT. Then we can find out the probability of these three ways of flipping is $\frac18$ , $\frac14$ ,and $\frac14$ , respectively. So the rest is exactly the probability of flipping at least two consecutive heads: $1-\frac18-\frac14-\frac14 = \frac38$ . It is the answer $\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ \frac38}$ . ----LarryFlora

2013 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 7	Followed by Problem 9
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All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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2013 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 8

Contents

Problem

Video Solution

Solution 1

Solution 2

See Also