50/50? Not Quite.

[AJL67]

Rather interesting paper linked below, but the odds of a coin flip are not actually 50/50, they are 51/49 depending on which is face up when flipped. Which is kind of cool but the thing that got me was, spinning a US One Cent regular penny on a flat surface and letting it spin till it drops .. it will come up tails EIGHTY PERCENT of the time! Any relatively clean penny is all it takes to try it out, dirty pennies have build up and aren't weighted as they were when minted.

Toss Out the Toss-Up: Bias in heads-or-tails: Science News Online, Feb. 28, 2004

Coin tossing is inherently biased, with the coin more likely to land on the same face it started on.

web.archive.org

 

[mikethompson]

I will remember this next time I flip a coin.

 

[AJL67]

I will remember this next time I flip a coin.

I always pictured you hanging out on corners under streetlights flipping a nickel!

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

Tails never fails.

 

[anotherbob]

if you get a trick coin you can make sure it always lands heads or tails depending on the coin. Just in case anyone feels like being shady.