For the mathematically minded

[malorum]

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040228/fob2.asp

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Their preliminary data suggest that a coin will land the same way it started about 51 percent of the time. It would take about 10,000 tosses before a casual observer would become aware of such a small bias, Diaconis says. "Maybe that's why society hasn't noticed this before," he says.

This slight bias pales when compared with that of spinning a coin on its edge. A spinning penny will land as tails about

80 percent of the time, Diaconis says, because the extra material on the head side shifts the center of mass slightly.


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