Coin-Flip Statistics: Pattern Racing, Runs, and Bayesian Updating
You are given three independent questions about fair coin tossing and Bayesian updating. Assume all flips are independent.
Tasks
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Repeatedly toss a fair coin until either pattern HHH or pattern THH appears. What is the probability that HHH appears before THH?
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Toss a fair coin 15 times. What is the expected length of the longest consecutive run of heads?
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Let θ be the (unknown) probability of heads for a coin with prior density p(θ) ∝ θ^3 on [0, 1]. After observing 4 tosses, all of which are heads, what is the posterior distribution of θ?