Turns out, coin flips aren’t the 50/50 gamble we thought! A Nature study a while back analyzed 350,757 flips and found a slight bias: coins land same-side-up as they started 51% of the time. It’s called the ‘same-side bias’—something about pre-flip wobble and center-of-mass quirks.
But before you rage-quit betting games: 1️⃣ The edge is tiny (basically 51/49). 2️⃣ It depends on how you flip (height, spin, catch style). 3️⃣ For most of us, it’s close enough to ‘random’—unless you’re a stats-obsessed robot.
Fun fact: Mathematician Persi Diaconis (a former pro magician) proved you can train to bias flips further. So if you lose a bet, blame physics… or practice your flick. 😉
Anyone else tested this? I’m tempted to sacrifice my spare change to science
Yes, it's true—coin flips are not perfectly 50/50, and the side facing up before the flip can slightly influence the outcome.
Several studies, including one by statistician Persi Diaconis, have shown that:
When a coin is flipped, it tends to land on the same face that was up when flipped slightly more than 50% of the time.
This bias arises due to the physics of the flip—notably, small imperfections in how the coin is flipped, its weight distribution, and air resistance.
The effect is small, but measurable. For example, in controlled experiments, coins have shown a bias of about 1–2% toward the starting face, meaning if heads is up before the flip, it might land heads around 51% of the time rather than 50%.
So while coin flips are often treated as fair for practical purposes, they are not truly random in a physical sense.
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Turns out, coin flips aren’t the 50/50 gamble we thought! A Nature study a while back analyzed 350,757 flips and found a slight bias: coins land same-side-up as they started 51% of the time. It’s called the ‘same-side bias’—something about pre-flip wobble and center-of-mass quirks.
ReplyDeleteBut before you rage-quit betting games:
1️⃣ The edge is tiny (basically 51/49).
2️⃣ It depends on how you flip (height, spin, catch style).
3️⃣ For most of us, it’s close enough to ‘random’—unless you’re a stats-obsessed robot.
Fun fact: Mathematician Persi Diaconis (a former pro magician) proved you can train to bias flips further. So if you lose a bet, blame physics… or practice your flick. 😉
Anyone else tested this? I’m tempted to sacrifice my spare change to science
Yes, it's true—coin flips are not perfectly 50/50, and the side facing up before the flip can slightly influence the outcome.
ReplyDeleteSeveral studies, including one by statistician Persi Diaconis, have shown that:
When a coin is flipped, it tends to land on the same face that was up when flipped slightly more than 50% of the time.
This bias arises due to the physics of the flip—notably, small imperfections in how the coin is flipped, its weight distribution, and air resistance.
The effect is small, but measurable. For example, in controlled experiments, coins have shown a bias of about 1–2% toward the starting face, meaning if heads is up before the flip, it might land heads around 51% of the time rather than 50%.
So while coin flips are often treated as fair for practical purposes, they are not truly random in a physical sense.