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Old 07-19-2005, 11:06 AM
DMBFan23 DMBFan23 is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Default Re: Quick Rando Question : Fair Coin

Nottom,

I would think the action resulting from the coin hitting the surface would impact the orientation of the coin more if it landed on its edge as opposed to the side...after all, on a side the coin has a whole side's worth of surface area touching the surface...very stable.

whereas on an edge, no matter how thick we make the coin, we still only have a very small amount touching the surface at any time

it seems like if the coin were to land initially on its side, it would be more likely to stay there as opposed to initially landing on an edge and staying on an edge. this is probably a function of the energy in the coin and however you can translate that to some sort of bounce coefficient - so every time the coin bounces you have the same process with slightly less energy.

I would think the coin would have to be slightly thicker than geometry would suggest to compensate for this
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