For the experiment of tossing a coin three times, how do you find the probability of getting exactly one tail?

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Answer 1 · 2017-02-25T08:53:14

$P(1 T)=3/8$

If we do this from first principals.

List all the possible outcomes for tossing a coin three times.

$H=" head, T=" tail"$

on three tosses:

$HHH$

$color(blue)(HHT)$
$color(blue)(HTH)$
$color(blue)(THH)$

$HT T$
$THT$
$T TH$

$T T T$

8 possibilities in all

if we look at the list there three ways of obtaining one tail

$P(1 T)=3/8$

Other ways of doing this would involve the laws of probability or Binomial distribution.