Want to get a slight edge during a coin toss? Check out which side is facing upwards before the coin is flipped –- then call that same side.
Want to get a slight edge during a coin toss? Check out which side is facing upwards before the coin is flipped –- then call that same side.
This tactic will win 50.8 percent of the time, according to researchers who conducted 350,757 coin flips.
For the preprint study, which was published on the arXiv database last week and has not yet been peer-reviewed, 48 people tossed coins of 46 different currencies.
They were told to flip the coins with their thumb and catch it in their hand—if the coins fell on a flat surface that could introduce other factors such as bouncing or spinning.
Frantisek Bartos, of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, told AFP that the work was inspired by 2007 research led by Stanford University mathematician Persi Diaconis—who is also a former magician.
Diaconis‘ model proposed that there was a „wobble“ and a slight off-axis tilt that occurs when humans flip coins with their thumb, Bartos said.
