Heads of Tails?
Whenever 2 people want the same thing, one way to decide who gets it is to flip a coin. Each person picks one side of the coin — heads or tails — and once someone flips it in the air and it lands on the ground, whichever side is facing up tells you who won. It’s a good way to pick a winner, because the coin has an equal chance of facing heads up or tails up. Now, if you look at a quarter, it does have a head on one side (President Washington), but the other side doesn’t have a tail, does it? We just say “heads” and “tails” because they live at opposite ends of the body. People have been flipping coins to decide things ever since Roman times thousands of years ago. Now we use it mostly to decide which football team gets the ball. But since today is Flip a Coin Day, why not try flipping a coin to settle things in your own life?
Wee ones: If you have a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter to flip, how many coins do you have?
Little kids: If you flip a coin 8 times and you get heads, then tails, then tails, then heads again to repeat…what shows up on the 6th toss? Bonus: If you chose tails, did you win more or fewer times than heads?
Big kids: You can pick a winner out of 3 people by flipping 3 coins; if 1 coin lands facing the other way from the other 2, whoever chose that coin drops out. If you flip 3 quarters to land in a row, how many different orders of heads and tails can you get? Bonus: In how many of them does 1 person lose?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 coins.
Little kids: Tails. Bonus: Tails wins 2 more times (5 tails, 3 heads).
Big kids: 8 combinations, since each coin has 2 choices, and for each of those, the next coin has 2 choices, giving us 2 x 2 x 2 (the 8 combos are HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, and TTT). Bonus:In 6 cases — all cases except the all-heads and all-tails.
Wee ones: If you have a penny, a nickel, a dime and a quarter to flip, how many coins do you have?
Little kids: If you flip a coin 8 times and you get heads, then tails, then tails, then heads again to repeat…what shows up on the 6th toss? Bonus: If you chose tails, did you win more or fewer times than heads?
Big kids: You can pick a winner out of 3 people by flipping 3 coins; if 1 coin lands facing the other way from the other 2, whoever chose that coin drops out. If you flip 3 quarters to land in a row, how many different orders of heads and tails can you get? Bonus: In how many of them does 1 person lose?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 coins.
Little kids: Tails. Bonus: Tails wins 2 more times (5 tails, 3 heads).
Big kids: 8 combinations, since each coin has 2 choices, and for each of those, the next coin has 2 choices, giving us 2 x 2 x 2 (the 8 combos are HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, and TTT). Bonus:In 6 cases — all cases except the all-heads and all-tails.