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There's been an interesting debate among some of the people that I know about the meaning of the phrase "sequences of heads and tails", heads and tails as in the sides of a coin when flipped. What they're wondering about is if the phrase "sequences of heads and tails" implies that any sequence of heads and tails MUST have at least one head and one tail (that is, it must have both heads AND tails at the same time), or that such a sequence contains only heads and/or tails, but not necessarily both at the same time. So what's really the issue is the meaning of the word "and" in this context. Any thoughts?
In response to the original question, I don't think the terminology can change after the outcome is known. It is a sequence of heads and tails even if the outcome was entirely heads.
It would be similar to a true-and-false exam in which all the correct responses are false, or for which only the true responses were selected by a student. The outcome doesn't make it a "true" exam, or a "false" exam. It is still a multiple-choice exam even if the correct answers are always C, or if a student selects only the B responses. That doesn't make it a "single-choice" exam. Even if the exam consists of one question, it is a multiple-choice question.
All heads is one possible outcome for a sequence of heads and tails. The terminology lets you know what the possibilities were, even if some of those possibilities were never realized.
You could imagine a less-known game in which the outcome might be, heads-tails-bodies-legs. If all the outcomes were only heads and tails, it would not then have been a game of heads-or-tails.
There are actual variants of rock-paper-scissors which have additional weapons: rock-paper-scissors-dynamite; a French variant, rock-paper-scissors-well(-bull); another variant adds Spock and lizard to the traditional three. Assuming you have a best out of three match of one of these variants and nobody selects anything but rock, paper, or scissors, you were nonetheless playing the variant and not the traditional game.
That a single outcome takes the plural form is a fascinating question. While the word takes a plural form for singular use, the verb remains singular for singular events, and plural for plural use, even though the number cannot be readily determined by the subject.
Heads comes up again!
Tails is the winner!
There were six heads in a row.
You might still refer to the "head of the coin" or the "tail of the coin" (not plural), but it is always with the -s when discussing the game. "Heads!" While I can find lots of confirmation of it, I don't see any credible explanation for it.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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