Coin tosses aren't 50-50

[Humodour]

http://www.physorg.com/news175267656.html

 

They can be as much as 40-60. The trick is that the side it started on is the side most likely to come up.

[Purkake]

[Humodour]

Dude, this is important. Your life could depend on this knowledge if Twoface ever kidnaps you.

 

In fact, if I had of known about this back in the Summer of '62, I'd still have motor function in both my legs today.

Edited October 21, 2009 by Krezack

[Hiro Protagonist]

High-Rise Syndrome is the phenomenon of cats falling from higher than two stories (7

[Amentep]

http://www.physorg.com/news175267656.html

 

They can be as much as 40-60. The trick is that the side it started on is the side most likely to come up.

 

The thing I've found is that the flipper can, to some degree, determine the outcome of the flip (for awhile I had flipped coins enough that I knew based on the general speed of the flip I'd made and the height it got and what side it started on what side it'd land on).

 

In that sense, I'm a bit dismayed that the study uses human flippers. Seems like a machine flipper would need to be used to make sure that all the variables in how the coin is flipped can be reduced so that you're actually looking at the flip itself and not how its flipped.

 

I also wonder if the printing on the coin matters - does a high relief tend to favor landing down?

[Moose]

If you read the article there's no actual explanation in it as to why this may be. I would assume for the same reasons toast tends to fall butter side down, because the two variables that dictate this (the height between the table and the floor, and the rotational speed of the toast) tends to be fixed. Following the same logic I suppose everyone flips a coin more or less in the same manner (same launching force).

[Moose]

Just an idea, but if that's the theory then using the principal of conservation of angular momentum, flipping a smaller coin will achieve more "random" results.

[Walsingham]

Could just be a feature of teh force and number of turns possible in the time during an arc of that force. But i always knew coin flipping is a useful art to know.

[Guest The Architect]

Yeah it's actually 50-60. It's just a basic maths error.

[vault_overseer]

One of my best friends is an actuary mathematician and we had couple of talks about randomness of results in coin tossing and ways to influence those results. Basically, in order to be really close to 50-50(which, you have a very small chance of actually getting), you need as many uncontrolled variables as possible to introduce true randomness. The moment you take the test into the lab, you get more controlled variables in and less uncontrolled, so you don't actually get the same randomness. Same thing with a coin tossing machine - it takes away a lot of randomness, making it easier to influence the outcome.

 

So, it's been always known, that in a controlled condition, eliminating the variables, it is possible to reliably influence the outcome of the coin flip. However, as soon as you take it out of the controlled environment, amount of variables grows to infinity, thereby making it much harder, nigh impossible to predict, or influence the result.

 

 

Or that's what I've been told, as far as I remember, we usually drink a lot when we talk about things like that.

[Darth InSidious]

Also, who would do a study on cats falling at different heights to prove this?

Presumably someone who doesn't like the self-serving little egotists cats?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Dude, this is important. Your life could depend on this knowledge if Twoface ever kidnaps you.

 

 

Harvey Dent doesnt let people pick head or tails, he uses a trick heads/heads coin with one side scratched over. If that side comes up, you're toast. And he wont let you convince him into putting one side or the other up in his hand when he tosses the coin as that would be an infraction on the fairness of the cointoss.

 

 

...it could save you from Anton Chigurh though.

[Walsingham]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

[Purkake]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

 

Go on...

[Aristes]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

So, heads or tails, you swallow?

[Calax]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

*sees an image of your avatar spitting out his pipe and sending a froglike tongue to catch a coin in mid-air while onlookers drop their drinks*

[Walsingham]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

*sees an image of your avatar spitting out his pipe and sending a froglike tongue to catch a coin in mid-air while onlookers drop their drinks*

 

Majestic

[Purkake]

Majestic

[Walsingham]

Majestic

 

I spent a good twenty seconds hoping this was an animated gif.

[Purkake]

sorry to disappoint, just a ye olde avatar quote.

[Walsingham]

sorry to disappoint, just a ye olde avatar quote.

 

No apology necessary. I'll just dwell on the intense excitement while I was waiting.

[Gorgon]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

*sees an image of your avatar spitting out his pipe and sending a froglike tongue to catch a coin in mid-air while onlookers drop their drinks*

 

Majestic

Incidentally, were you thinking of the Catholic eating Elisabethan spy master or some comic character I don't know about.

[Walsingham]

I've always felt that the optimal solution would be to catch the coin out of midair with your tongue and swallow it.

*sees an image of your avatar spitting out his pipe and sending a froglike tongue to catch a coin in mid-air while onlookers drop their drinks*

 

Majestic

Incidentally, were you thinking of the Catholic eating Elisabethan spy master or some comic character I don't know about.

 

My dear boy, you don't EAT catholics! The constant guilt makes the meat bitter.

[Darth InSidious]

My dear boy, you don't EAT catholics! The constant guilt makes the meat bitter.

Idiotically stupid 'jokes' ripped from Clinton Ditchkins' Smog Infusion, however, are certainly grounds for being eaten alive.

 

How about for an encore you tell us about your money-grubbing Jewish neighbour, the terrorist Muslims who live down the street, or do your oh-so-hilarious Indian accent?

 

Do say hello to Dr. Paisley when you see him.

Edited October 22, 2009 by Darth InSidious

[Oner]

High-Rise Syndrome is the phenomenon of cats falling from higher than two stories (7