Here’s the basic process. After you’ve got this down, we’ll look at a few ways to influence the outcome of the coin flip.
You should be able to learn a basic coin flip in 10-20 minutes, but if you want to actually force the coin flip to go your way—or if you want to be able to guess a coin flip consistently to impress your friends—you’ll need to learn a few simple sleights of hand.
Changing the Outcome of the Coin FlipThere are dozens of ways to alter or predict the outcome of a coin flip. We’ll focus on two of the easiest methods:
Feel the coin when you catch it. With some practice, you can easily differentiate between the smooth “heads" side and the comparatively rougher “tails" side. If the coin’s in your palm and you’ve got an outcome you don’t like, flip it once more while displaying it.
The classic method, of course, is to flip it onto the back of your opposite hand, but people will catch on to that pretty quick.
If you move your hand while displaying the coin, you may be able to flip it with your thumb during the display. This is a bit tricky, but with practice, it’s an easy trick to pull on your gullible friends.
Don’t actually flip the coin. Instead of flicking your thumb to flip the coin, use your index finger to give it a slight wobble as you toss it softly into the air. Simply pull your index finger along the edge to spin the coin like a frisbee.
The wobble will make the coin seem like it’s flipping, but it’ll actually stay in the same position, so if it starts as “heads,” you simply need to call “heads.” This takes some practice, but it’s remarkably effective.
How random are coin flips, anyway?Let’s say that you’re not interested in learning sleights of hand. Could you gain any sort of advantage by picking “heads" over “tails,” or vice-versa?
Possibly. Statistician Persi Diaconis worked with Harvard University engineers to study coin flips and found that if a coin starts out “heads,” it ends up “heads" slightly more often than it ends up “tails.” Because humans flip coins in very different ways—using different angles and speeds—it’s difficult to set exact odds, but Diaconis found that “for natural flips, the chance of coming up as started is about .51.”
That assumes that the coin toss is perfectly normal. As coins age, they might wear down on one side, resulting in even less randomness, and if a coin spins on its side—as often happens when a coin is flipped onto a surface—its outcome can be relatively predictable.
“It’s easy to find coins which are 80 percent tails,” Diaconis says in one video.
Those coins tend to have un-serrated edges (so quarters are safe). As the coin hits the ground or another hard surface—not your palm, which stops the movement—it tends to balance on its edge for a moment, at which point it falls to its preferred side.
How can you make sure that a coin flip is fair?With all of that in mind, here are some rules for ensuring that a coin flip is as random as possible:
That’s pretty much everything you need to know about coin flips. Remember, you shouldn’t use your new skills for anything dishonest—just have some fun tricking your friends and family.
a Coin Toss
No. Each flip of each coin is an independent event. The flip of the quarter has no effect on the flip of the penny and vice versa. Also, the previous flip of either coin has no effect on the next flip.
There are two sides to the coin, so the probability of getting heads or tails on one flip of the coin is 1/2 or 50%.
It is 0.5
A coin flip
a Coin Toss
By using a device or machine that will flip it for you.
The Flip of a Coin - 1919 was released on: USA: 8 March 1919
By the Flip of a Coin - 1915 was released on: USA: 1 July 1915
No. Each flip of each coin is an independent event. The flip of the quarter has no effect on the flip of the penny and vice versa. Also, the previous flip of either coin has no effect on the next flip.
They do not flip a coin it depends if you are home or away. Away gets ball first.
There are two sides to the coin, so the probability of getting heads or tails on one flip of the coin is 1/2 or 50%.
The probability of a flipped coin landing heads or tails will always be 50% either way, no matter how many times you flip it.
flip a coin.
The coin flip
You flip a coin
It is 0.5