Thus it was written in the epistle of Eric H. Sand,
> Hi Folks,
>     I just completed a little bit a research and found a couple of items
> that can shed some light on what we're trying to understand.
>     The first one is parallel to most of the postings and explains the
> "odds" when 20 coins are tossed "simultaneously".
>
> http://westgard.com/lesson36.htm#scores
>
>
>     The second one, I believe addresses Jeff's situation, where the odds for
> each subsequent toss of the coin(20 times), is always 50/50. The resultant
> behavior of "X" coin tosses cannot be derived from the result of any
> previous toss nor any subsequent toss.
>
> http://www1.ca.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/gamblers-fallacy.html

The problem is that the question was poorly stated.  If the question had been:
"I've flipped this coin 20 times and just realized that the last 6 times were
all heads, what's the chance of that?"
then the gamblers-fallacy would apply.

Ted
--
Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Sys, Southern Adventist University
          ==========================================================
If "Number rules the universe" as Pythagoras asserted, Number is merely our
delegate to the throne, for we rule Number.
                                      -- Bell, Eric Temple (1883-1960)