The probability of flipping a fair coin and getting heads is what?

• A. 0.25 or 25%.
• B. 2/3 or 66.7%.
• C. 1/2 or 50%.
• D. 0.75 or 75%

Answer: (C)

When a coin is fair, there are just two possible results on a single flip: heads or tails, and each is equally likely. The event you care about is getting heads, which means one favorable outcome out of two possible outcomes. So the probability is 1/2, which equals 0.5 or 50%.

The other numbers don’t fit a single fair coin flip: 0.25 would imply four equally likely outcomes, and 0.75 would imply three favorable outcomes out of four, neither of which matches a single flip of a fair coin.