Hapgood

Students really don’t get randomness. This is the classic Trick Coin Flip question — I have a trick coin that either comes up heads a bit more than tails, or tails a bit more than heads [They sell trick coins both ways, apparently]. I don’t know whether this particular trick coin tends towards heads or tails, and I don’t know by how much.

We call the tendency of the trick coin to “tilt” results in one direction it’s bias. I have the trick coin in my hand. Which of the following would give me the best idea of the coin’s bias?

• 10 flips?
• 100 flips?
• 1000 flips?
• or, it doesn’t matter, all of these give you the same idea of the coin’s bias.

The results from class you can see above. More later on this.