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399 points seanhunter | 5 comments | | HN request time: 1.023s | source
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acyou ◴[] No.42185920[source]
The paper looks like it has a large sample size, but it actually has a sample size of only 48 testers/flippers. Some of the videos of those testers show very low, low-rpm coin tosses, we're talking only 1-2 flips. Where they also flipped thousands of times, presumably in the same way. So there is actually a very small sample size in the study (N = 48), where testers that don't flip properly (low rpm, low height, few coin rotations) can affect the results disproportionately.

Doesn't look like the study author backgrounds are particularly focused on statistics. I would presume with 48 authors (all but 3 of which flipped coins for the study), the role of some might have been more test subject than author. And isn't being the subject in your own study going to introduce some bias? Surely if you're trying to prove to yourself that the coins land on one side or another given some factor, you will learn the technique to do it, especially if you are doing a low-rpm, low flip. Based on the study results, some of the flippers appear to have learned this quite well.

If the flippers (authors) had been convinced of the opposite (fair coins tend to land on the opposite side from which they started) and done the same study, I bet they could have collected data and written a paper with the results proving that outcome.

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1. anigbrowl ◴[] No.42187589[source]
testers that don't flip properly

Clearly the coin flips at the beginning of sports fixtures need to be assessed by a panel of highly skilled judges who can pronounce on their validity. We'll also need local, regional, national, and international organizations to train, select, and maintain the quality of coin flipping judges and to maintain the integrity of the discipline while moving forward as new coins are minted and different sorts of flipping styles are proposed by. Membership of such organizations should be limited to those afilliated with the Ancient Order of Coin Flippers.

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2. askvictor ◴[] No.42187733[source]
I was more thinking we'll need a Department of Randomness (or Ministry of Randomness for Westminster countries)
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3. pc86 ◴[] No.42187968[source]
Perhaps whether it's a Department or a Ministry could be decided randomly.
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4. Green-Man ◴[] No.42188396{3}[source]
Randomly how? By a coin toss? Who will toss then? How many times? How skilled the participants should be? All these important questions must be decided by some authority. Sort of a Department of Equal Distribution. Or a Ministry of Fair Tosses. Wait a second...
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5. moi2388 ◴[] No.42191337{4}[source]
The obvious solution is to hand it off to the Department of Catch 22. Or the Ministry of infinite recursion. Wait..