Enquiry

Making unfair coins

Can you make a coin that falls, on average, heads more often than tails?

I'll leave you to think of a way of adapting an existing coin or making one from scratch. I expect you can be put in the Tower of London and boiled in oil for defacing coins of the realm so don't try to bribe a policeman with one of your creations.

Now we come to the interesting bit. How are you going to test it? Ah yes. I hadn't thought of that. Do you make a machine? In any event does the way you toss the coin affect the result? Ok I relent:- Try a good one side by side with your special.

Being of a scientific turn of mind you think through your experiment first.
What amount of bias do you think you can achieve?
How many tosses are you likely to need before you can be sure of the trend?

During your experiments you may find you have a knack of throwing that has a bias with a good coin.

Back to list of experiments

Back to master contents ©