One of the most fiercely debated topics in sports is the hot hand theory. The hot hand theory says that success breeds success. In other words, rather than each shot a basketball player takes or each at-bat a baseball player has being an independent event, the outcome of one event affects the next event. That is, a player can get hot and make a lot of shots in a row or get a lot of hits in a row. The hot hand theory, however, has been shown to be false in numerous academic studies.

Be sure to use some of the terms you’ve learned in this unit, such as independent event, dependent event, and conditional probability, in your answer.