If youre looking for your next binge-watch, the researchers taped every flip and made the footagepublicly available.
Fortunately, the group tested a variety of coins and found no preference for heads vs. tails.
Spinning a coin seems even worse.Someworkhas found that spinning pennies are much more likely to land tails-up.
Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky Leta
Next time your friend wants to settle something by flipping a coin, maybe suggest spinning a penny instead.
Remember to call tails.
Did you miss last weeks puzzle?
Graphic: Jack Murtagh
Check it outhere, and find its solution at the bottom of todays article.
Be careful not to read too far ahead if you havent solved last weeks yet!
Instead of an ordinary coin flip, youll call either HHT or THH.
Graphic: Jack Murtagh
Then well flip the coin multiple times in a row and record the results.
We keep flipping until one of them occurs.
Which do you call?
Graphic: Jack Murtagh
Or does it not matter?
What is the probability that each wins?
The coin is fair and is equally likely to turn up heads or tails on any given flip.
Ill be back next Monday with the answer and a new puzzle.
Do you know a cool puzzle that you think should be featured here?
A stable has 25 horses.
What is the minimum number of races youll need to identify the three fastest horses of the 25?
Youll need seven races.
Shout-out to Lions-Eye Sea-Rear for accompanying your correct solution with a nice visual aid.
That was an oversight and I apologize if my unneeded clarification misled any of you.
Heres how to do it in seven races.
So start with five races where each horse participates in one of them.
We have no evidence to the contrary until we conduct further races.
well pit horses A, F, K, P, and U against each other.
Race 6 also taught us that A is the fastest horse of all.
How do we know that?
Could G be faster than A, for example?
News from the future, delivered to your present.
How can he escape?
