> > I have heard the claim several times that some skilled magicians are > capable of controlling the number of rotations that a flipped coin > willmake before it is caught. As such they can reliably toss > heads. Tossed > coins are just very sensitive to their inital conditions and the skill > is in controlling the initial conditions. So random would just > mean > very unskilled at controlling the toss.
Yes, the NPR report that launched this thread is about a robotic "thumb" which produces the same initial conditions for every toss of the coin, so it is no great surprise that the coin lands the same way repeatedly. In this case there is very little uncertainty in the system so the coin toss is not random. Nor is this result surprising. Michael > > **************************************************** Michael Granaas [EMAIL PROTECTED] Assoc. Prof. Phone: 605 677 5295 Dept. of Psychology FAX: 605 677 3195 University of South Dakota 414 E. Clark St. Vermillion, SD 57069 ***************************************************** . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
