Relate how toss or flip of a coin to have a boy or a girl for a couple who wants their first child to be so.

Question

 Relate how toss or flip of a coin and its two possible events to happen every time it goes into the air to a

  possible head or tail appearance to the chance to have a boy or a girl for a couple who wants their first child to be so.  Explain the possibility of how it will happen.

Answer 1

I'm not sure I understand your question...

One response is that a coin flip (of a fair coin, of course!) and the likelihood of having a boy or girl have the same probability: 0.5 of 50%. Heads and Tails are equally likely, so each has a probability of 0.5. Similarly, the chance of having a boy and of having a girl are equally likely, so each has probability of 0.5 just the same.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Hi Jocelyn,

To put the above scenario in layman's terms for you, Jocelyn:

A coin toss always provides a 50/50 probability of it landing on heads or tails accordingly, just like the chance of birthing a boy or a girl baby is 50/50. Even though both males and females produce X chromosomes unto their offspring, the fact that the male sperm also contains a Y chromosome allows for the possibility of a boy baby being born. So even though the female ovary is guaranteed to produce a girl due to the lone X chromosome present thereon, the Y chromosome can "shake things up" on the chromosomal front accordingly.

Scientifically speaking: although the sperm's Y chromosome moves faster down the fallopian tube when fertilizing an egg, the X chromosome (from both the sperm and ovary) is stronger/more dominant. So sometimes, the slow-but-steady contender wins the race when it comes to producing a male versus a female fetus. But even though both the male and female parents of a child possess X chromosomes, the probability of producing a girl or a boy is still 50/50 due to the presence of the male Y chromosome, with no predictable fetal outcome in tow either (regardless of whether or not a family's overall lineage or an individual's siblings or parents' offspring shows reproduction of more males or females accordingly).

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

A child will either be genetically male (XY) or female (XX) depending on the combination of sex chromosomes from the parents. Since the mother is female (XX) they will only be able to donate X chromosome to the offspring, this is important because both males and females need an X chromosome. This means the sex of the child will be dependent on the chromosome donated by the father's sperm which can give either an X or Y chromosome because males have both types. It is for this reason that every time a couple conceives there is a 50/50 chance of the child being XX or XY. Each fertilization event is independent, just like flipping a coin, so the result of the first one will not impact the second one and the chances will again be 50/50.

Answer 4

They both have a 0.5 probability because there are 2 options for both, one or the other. For the coin toss it is heads or tails. For the genetics situation of sex of child it is boy or girl (for the purposes of this scenario). So both have a probability of 0.5 for one of the possibilities occurring on the first try. If they were asking for the second try you would multipy the probabilities of first and second try to be a girl for one scenario, and heads for the other scenario and it would be 0.5x0.5= 0.25. But that is not what they are asking. If on the first try the probability of getting one out of the two outcomes for the coin toss (heads or tails) and a boy or girl on the first try is exactly the same for both scenarios and that probability is: 0.5