THHGTTG and Stream of Consciousness

I was listening to a podcast, Science Talk (Scientific American) and there was an interview with author David J. Hand on his book The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles and Rare Events Happen Every Day  and he started off on probabilities of a coin flip.

Science Talk: Sometimes the Hoofprints Are from Zebras

 

 

Link to Amazon

 

 

 

 It reminded me of math classes from high school where we had to calculate that exact thing.

Which is the most likely outcome of a coin flip 5 times in a row?
a. HHHHH
b. TTTTT
c. HTHTH
d.HHHHT

and on and on. The correct answer is all of them.

1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2 *1/2 for each answer you will have a 1/32 chance of that result.


The outcomes made me think of the abbreviation to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: THHGTTG. So close! What are the chances of a coin flip landing in that order 8 times? The G's will represent the coin landing on its side.

According to Daniel B. Murray and Scott W. Teare of Harvard, the odds of that happening are 1 in 6000. Source

 

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