(September 29, 2017 at 11:57 am)Tiberius Wrote: Suppose you have a coin, and you suspect it is unfair (i.e. it lands on one side more often than the other). You don't know which side it lands on more, and for sake of argument assume you can't find out.
How can you simulate a fair coin flip using this coin only? By "fair" I mean that you should get a "heads" result exactly 50% of the time, and a "tails" result exactly 50% of the time.
Assuming only 1 flip of the coin, then if I don't know which side the coin lands on more, then it would be a fair coin flip, if I call it. (since I have a 50/50 chance of getting the dominant side).
If you want more trials, you could spin the coin, and pick a feature on both sides of the coin, and determine the direction that feature is pointing.
It is said that an argument is what convinces reasonable men and a proof is what it takes to convince even an unreasonable man. - Alexander Vilenkin
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther
If I am shown my error, I will be the first to throw my books into the fire. - Martin Luther
