Write algorithm for biased toss of a coin

Question

Given a biased coin whose probability for Heads is 0.67 and Tails is 0.33, write an algorithm which will print the Heads and Tails with this probability.

I am not able to proceed with the problem. What should be my approach ?

Answer 1

You should just use a random number generator which is generally located in Math libraries. (Pseudo) Random number generators generally use linear congruences like $X_{i+1} = (a X_i + c) ~ {\rm mod} ~ m, ~~~ i = 0, 1, 2, ... $

function()

   var rand := generateRandomNumber [1, 100]
   if rand<=67 then
      print "heads"
   else
      print "tails"
   endif

end function

generateRandomNumber function will return a pseudorandom number between 1 and 100. So if we say your random variable is $X \\$
$ Then,\; P(X\leq67)\; will\; be \; \frac{67}{100}\;and \; P(X>67)\; will\; be \; \frac{33} {100} $

Answer 2

Let $\xi$ be a random variable uniformly distribuited in $[0,1]$ and $t$ a real value in $(0,1)$, consider the function

$$ Y(\xi;t) = \begin{cases} 1 & \xi < t \\ 0 & \text{otherwise} \end{cases} $$

Which is a discrete random variable therefore

$$ p_Y(y) = (1-t) \delta(y) + t \delta(y - 1) $$

This means that if pick a random number in $[0,1]$ and you later compute $Y$, this $Y$ will correspond to a randomly picked value in $\left\{0,1\right\}$, but biased accordingly to $t$. If you use @kngtu pseudocode, it's equivalent to define the distribution above where $t = 0.67$.

Answer 3

If you can generate a random number between 0 and 1, then do

Edit: round random to 2 decimal places

if (random < 0.34) return "tails"; else return "heads";

That way (assuming the random number generator is actually random) you have a 33% change of tails and 67% chance of heads.