Step by step
The question
Question: A coin is flipped 40 times and lands heads 26 times.
Find the experimental probability of heads.
1 Times it happened over times tried
It happened 26 times out of 40 flips.
So the experimental probability is 26/40.
Experimental probability comes from what really happened in the experiment.
26 and 40 can both be divided by 2.
So it is 13/20.
As a percent: 20 times 5 is 100.
13 times 5 is 65.
So it is 65%.
2 Compare with the theory
In theory, a coin has 2 sides, so heads is 1 out of 2: 50%.
Careful!
That is the theory.
The question asks what really happened: 65%.
65% is far from 50%.
With so few flips, that can happen.
More flips usually get closer.
3 Check
Let's check: 65% of 40 flips should be the 26 times.
65% of 40 is 26.
So the answer is right!
Let's look back.
First: times it happened over times tried.
Then: compare with the theory.
Last: check.