this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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127
"Fair" coin flips appear to not be all that fair (arxiv.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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The paper shows some significant evidence that human coin flips are not as fair as I would have expected (plus probably a bunch of people would agree with me). There's always some probability that this happened by chance, but this is pretty low.

Of course, we should be able to build a really accurate coin flipping machine, but I never would have expected such a bias for human flippers.

This is why science is awesome and challenging your ideas is important.

Edit: hopefully this is not too wrong a place, but Lemmy is small, and I didn't know where else I could share such an exciting finding.

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[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I remember it feeling this way as a kid. That coins tend to land on the same side they start on.

[–] PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

No! Bad treefrog.

If it "feels like" something, you're probably fooling yourself.

Hard evidence. The easiest person to fool is yourself.

Edit: people, please don't down vote treefrog. They are learning, and I am joking.

Be nice. This place is way toxic. I'm not sure how much more I can handle it.

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