/hobby/ - Hobby

I don't know how the belief that coin-tossing has perfect 50-50 odds is still so common, but it's wrong. I'm not talking about any clever tricks here, just regular coin tossing. The coin is somewhat more likely to land with the same orientation as at the start of the throw. This is a well-established empirical result.

coin General? My friend found this coin on his floor of his apartment when he moved in; I needed abirth day gift and he mailed it to me. Thought it was pretty cool.

Also: DEATH TO THE RAT

Math problem: Suppose your coin may be biased, but you don't know the actual probabilities. How do you make coin-tossing fair? Variant: Let's add to this problem the start-orientation bias.

>>2060
Toss the coin twice with the calls reversed (same start orientation). Repeat if tied.

>>2060
Look at it, then depending on if it is heads or tails turn it on your arm or not, to make it more fair for the candidate who really tried so hard and made our billionaire friends so happy.

Another math problem: Suppose the coins are unbiased and that there is no start-orientation bias either. What are the odds that you win six tosses in a row?

>>2069
With each toss, the number of possible sequences doubles. 2*2*2*2*2*2 = 64. So, there are 64 possible sequences for six coin tosses and in only one of them you win six times. In other words, that you DON'T win six times in a row has a probability between 98 and 99 percent.