
-
Win or bust in Europa League for Amorim's Man Utd
-
Trump celebrates 100 days in office with campaign-style rally
-
Top Cuban dissidents detained after court revokes parole
-
Arteta urges Arsenal to deliver 'special' fightback against PSG
-
Trump fires Kamala Harris's husband from Holocaust board
-
Pakistan says India planning strike as tensions soar over Kashmir attack
-
Weinstein sex attack accuser tells court he 'humiliated' her
-
France accuses Russian military intelligence over cyberattacks
-
Global stocks mostly rise as Trump grants auto tariff relief
-
Grand Vietnam parade 50 years after the fall of Saigon
-
Trump fires ex first gentleman Emhoff from Holocaust board
-
PSG 'not getting carried away' despite holding edge against Arsenal
-
Cuban dissidents detained after court revokes parole
-
Sweden stunned by new deadly gun attack
-
BRICS blast 'resurgence of protectionism' in Trump era
-
Trump tempers auto tariffs, winning cautious praise from industry
-
'Cruel measure': Dominican crackdown on Haitian hospitals
-
'It's only half-time': Defiant Raya says Arsenal can overturn PSG deficit
-
Dembele sinks Arsenal as PSG seize edge in Champions League semi-final
-
Les Kiss to take over Wallabies coach role from mid-2026
-
Real Madrid's Rudiger, Mendy and Alaba out injured until end of season
-
US threatens to quit Russia-Ukraine effort unless 'concrete proposals'
-
Meta releases standalone AI app, competing with ChatGPT
-
Zverev crashes as Swiatek scrapes into Madrid Open quarter-finals
-
BRICS members blast rise of 'trade protectionism'
-
Trump praises Bezos as Amazon denies plan to display tariff cost
-
France to tax small parcels from China amid tariff fallout fears
-
Hong Kong releases former opposition lawmakers jailed for subversion
-
Trump celebrates tumultuous 100 days in office
-
Sweden gun attack leaves three dead
-
Real Madrid's Rudiger banned for six matches after Copa final red
-
Firmino, Toney fire Al Ahli into AFC Champions League final
-
Maximum respect for Barca but no fear: Inter's Inzaghi
-
Trump signals relief on auto tariffs as industry awaits details
-
Cuban court revokes parole of two prominent dissidents
-
Narine leads from the front as Kolkata trump Delhi in IPL
-
Amazon says never planned to show tariff costs, after White House backlash
-
Djokovic to miss Italian Open
-
Trossard starts for Arsenal in Champions League semi against PSG
-
Sweden shooting kills three: police
-
Real Madrid's Rudiger, Mendy out injured until end of season
-
Dubois' trainer accuses Usyk of 'conning boxing world'
-
Femke Bol targets fast return after draining 2024
-
Asterix, Obelix and Netflix: US streamer embraces Gallic heroes
-
Watson wins Tour de Romandie prologue, Evenepoel eighth
-
Amazon says never decided to show tariff costs, after White House backlash
-
India gives army 'operational freedom' to respond to Kashmir attack
-
Stocks advance as investors weigh earnings, car tariff hopes
-
Canadian firm makes first bid for international seabed mining license
-
Kardashian robbery suspect says heist was one 'too many'

Coin tosses are not 50/50: researchers find a slight bias
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.
Because of this bias, they proposed it would land on the side facing upwards when it was flipped 51 percent of the time -- almost exactly the same figure borne out by Bartos' research.
While that may not seem like a significant advantage, Bartos said it was more of an edge that casinos have against "optimal" blackjack players.
It does depend on the technique of the flipper. Some people had almost no bias while others had much more than 50.8 percent, Bartos said.
For people committed to choosing either heads or tails before every toss, there was no bias for either side, the researchers found.
None of the many different coins showed any sign of bias either.
Happily, achieving a fair coin flip is simple: just make sure the person calling heads or tails cannot see which side is facing up before the toss.
- 'It's fun to do stupid stuff' -
Bartos first heard of the bias theory while studying Bayesian statistics during his master's degree, and decided to test it on a massive scale.
But there was a problem: he needed people willing to toss a lot of coins.
At first he tried to persuade his friends to flip coins over the weekend while watching "Lord of the Rings".
"But nobody was really down for that," he said.
Eventually Bartos managed to convince some colleagues and students to flip coins whenever possible, during lunch breaks, even while on holiday.
"It will be terrible," he told them. "But it's fun to do some stupid stuff from time to time."
The flippers even held weekend-long events where they tossed coins from 9am to 9pm. A massage gun was deployed to soothe sore shoulders.
Countless decisions have been made by coin tosses throughout human history.
While writing his paper, Bartos visited the British Museum and learned that the Wright brothers used one to determine who would attempt the first plane flight.
Coin tosses have also decided numerous political races, including a tied 2013 mayoral election in the Philippines.
But they are probably most common in the field of sport. During the current Cricket World Cup, coin tosses decide which side gets to choose whether to bat or field first.
J.Williams--AMWN