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Tl;dr: There’s no particular bias to heads or tails, but a coin will land the same way it was when it was tossed 51% of the time.
by keepshoutingsir 6y ago
Tl;dr: There’s no particular bias to heads or tails, but a coin will land the same way it was when it was tossed 51% of the time.
- keithwhor 6y agoThe article is more interesting than just the finding, to those who want to delve deeper. It’s a short biography of Persi Diaconis, an accomplished mathematician with no high school diploma who didn’t start studying mathematics until he was 24. Really, really fascinating life and experience.
- sp332 6y agoI remembered the result that showed a coin toss was biased that way, but I didn't know that the degree of bias hadn't been nailed down. I guess it makes sense that it varies from person to person. Now I'm interested in an anthropological study of how different people toss coins...
- hnracer 6y agoI'm probably being dense but what do you mean by "the same way it was when it was tossed 51% of the time"?
- kilbuz 6y agoWhen you flip a coin, it is either heads side up or tails side up as it rests on your thumb. This initial position may slightly affect how it ultimately lands.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- callamdelaney 6y agoPretty sure it’s because the heads is heavier.
- 0-_-0 6y agoI thought it was common knowledge that heads are heavier than tails. My head certainly is.
- prionassembly 6y agoHN is way too harsh on jokes, even when they’re really good - like this one.
- rootusrootus 6y agoI think good jokes can get appreciation here, but we try pretty hard to avoid the reddit-style puns and joke chains that distract from the discussion. They're entertaining sometimes... on reddit.
- umanwizard 6y agoThere are plenty of other sites you can go to if you want to read chains of joke comments.
- Spooky23 6y agoSome folks have big heads, others big tails.
- Closi 6y agoIt’s not, it’s because when flipped the number of flips the coin does in the air is not entirely random.
- morelisp 6y agoNot only is this (somewhat obviously given the discovered bias) wrong, it’s physically impossible to bias a coin flip by weighting one side. Weighting a coin will change its center of gravity but to bias a flip you would need to impart angular momentum while it is in the air; at any constant rate of spin (again somewhat obviously once pointed out) each side will spend 50% of its time "up" and 50% "down". https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1198/000313002605 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1198/000313002605
- dheera 6y agoI think it's more random for me because I flip coins onto the floor, not onto my hand, or spin them on the table and see how they land when they stop spinning.
- eh78ssxv2f 6y agoDo we know the reasoning behind the bias?