Two Coins Solution

The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

When you toss 2 coins at once, will they usually land with the same side up or different sides up?

Solution: 

The chance of them landing with different sides up is the same as the chance of them landing with the same side up.

There are two ways to consider this:

  1. There are 4 different outcomes when 2 coins are tossed: HH   TT   TH   HT
    Since two of the four have both sides the same, it is equally likely that they land with the same sides up as they will land with different sides up.
     
  2. Regardless of what side up the first coin lands, there are two possibilities for the second coin - it will be the same, or it will be different.  Since each of these is equally likely, the chances are the same.