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SIAM Review / Volume 49 / Issue 2

SIAM Rev. 49, pp. 211-235 (25 pages)

Dynamical Bias in the Coin Toss

Persi Diaconis, Susan Holmes, and Richard Montgomery

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We analyze the natural process of flipping a coin which is caught in the hand. We show that vigorously flipped coins tend to come up the same way they started. The limiting chance of coming up this way depends on a single parameter, the angle between the normal to the coin and the angular momentum vector. Measurements of this parameter based on high‐speed photography are reported. For natural flips, the chance of coming up as started is about .51.

© 2007 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

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KEYWORDS

AMS Subject Headings

62A01, 70B10, 60A99

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0036-1445 (print)  
1095-7200 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

ARTICLE DATA

History
Received October 29, 2004
Accepted September 25, 2006
Published online May 01, 2007
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/S0036144504446436

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