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392 points seanhunter | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.299s | source
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NameError ◴[] No.42184405[source]
Easy way to get a fair result from an unfair coin toss: Flip the coin twice in a row, in this case starting with the same side facing up both times, so it's equally unfair for both tosses. If you get heads-heads or tails-tails, discard and start over until you get either heads-tails or tails-heads, which have equal probabilities (so you can say something like HT = "heads" and TH = "tails").

This works even if the coin lands heads 99% of the time, as long as it's consistent (but you'll probably have to flip a bunch of times in that case).

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1. Aloisius ◴[] No.42187238[source]
Each flip would need to start with the same side up though, if this paper is correct.