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Why is the expected number of heads in 100 fair-coin tosses equal to 50?

The expected number of heads is 50 because the expected value for a counting experiment like this is calculated as the number of trials multiplied by the probability of success on each trial. With 100 tosses and a fair coin (probability of heads = 0.5), the calculation is 100⋅0.5=50100 \cdot 0.5 = 50.

Conditions

  • The coin is fair.
  • There are 100 tosses per trial.
  • XX counts heads.

Reasoning, step by step

  1. Define the random variable XX as the number of heads after 100 tosses.
  2. Identify the probability of success (heads) for a single toss as 0.5.
  3. Apply the expectation rule: number of trials times probability of success.
  4. Calculate 100⋅0.5100 \cdot 0.5.
  5. Conclude that E(X)=50E(X) = 50.

Example

The board writes E(X)=100⋅.5=50E(X)=100\cdot .5=50 in blue handwriting.

Common misconceptions

  • Thinking that the expected value must be an integer outcome that will definitely occur; it is a long-run average, not a guaranteed single result.

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