Let's analyze the scenario step-by-step:
Initial Flips: We are given that after 2 flips, Erica has more heads than Alan. This can happen in 3 ways:
Erica gets HH and Alan gets TT (2 heads for Erica, 0 for Alan).
Erica gets HT and Alan gets TT (1 head for Erica, 0 for Alan).
Erica gets TH and Alan gets TT (1 head for Erica, 0 for Alan).
Remaining Flips: There are 3 remaining flips for each person. Since the coin is fair (each flip has a 50% chance of heads or tails), there are 23=8 possible outcomes for each person's remaining flips.
Favorable Outcomes: We only care about the outcomes where Erica maintains more heads than Alan after 5 flips. Consider the 3 initial scenarios:
HH vs TT: In this case, Erica needs any combination of heads and tails in her remaining 3 flips. There are 8 possibilities for her flips. For Alan, he cannot have any heads, so he needs all tails. There is only 1 possibility for his flips. So, there are 8⋅1=8 favorable outcomes.
HT vs TT: Here, Erica needs at least 2 heads in her remaining flips. There are (23)+(33)=3+1=4 ways for her to achieve this (2 heads and 1 tail, or 3 heads). Again, Alan needs all tails, so there is only 1 possibility for his flips. This gives us 4⋅1=4 favorable outcomes.
TH vs TT: Similar to HT vs TT, Erica needs at least 2 heads. There are 4 favorable outcomes. Alan still needs all tails, resulting in 1 possibility. So, there are 4⋅1=4 favorable outcomes.
Total Favorable Outcomes: Summing up the favorable outcomes from each initial scenario, we get a total of 8+4+4=16 successful outcomes for Erica.
Total Outcomes: There are 23=8 possibilities for Erica's remaining flips and 23=8 possibilities for Alan's remaining flips, leading to a total of 8⋅8=64 total outcomes.
Probability: The probability that Erica has more heads than Alan after 5 flips is the number of favorable outcomes divided by the total number of outcomes: $ \frac{16}{64} = \frac{1}{4}$.
Converting the fraction to relatively prime integers, we have m=1 and n=4. Therefore, m+n=5.