DAILY DIRT: Just how random is that flip of a coin?

Daily Dirt for Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024

Just wait until you get to today’s note concerning Pete Rose … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,122 of The Daily Dirt.

1. How many times have you and a buddy “flipped a coin,” simply to settle some sort of mild dispute stemming from where to go grab a burger or who will drive to the football game?

Flipping a coin is the most 50-50 opportunity to determine an outcome, right?

Well, in the words of famed sage Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend.”

While the mechanics of coin flipping are simple enough — guess a side and flip — the physics of how a coin flips are anything but that.

By exploring the motion involved, scientists have discovered that coin flips are not as random (and thus impartial) as most of us think.

A 2023 study from the University of Amsterdam flipped 350,757 coins across 46 different currencies and discovered that a coin flipped to its starting position 50.8 percent of the time — close to 50/50, but not quite. In other words, if a coin started heads up, there was a slightly greater chance it would land heads up, too.

That study wound up proving a previous theorem, developed in 2004 in another study, that argued that coin tosses landed as they started 51 percent of the time. That small of a difference would likely not dissuade anyone from practicing a coin flip to settle a dispute — but a more serious concern comes from a 2009 report that revealed coin tosses can be easily manipulated with just a few minutes of practice.

The bottom line? If you’re relying on the “randomness” of a coin toss to determine an important decision, make sure you can trust the person doing the flipping.

And if you can’t decide on which person to perform the act? Well … just flip a coin, of course.

2. Did you know (Part 195)

• That the original choice to play Kareem Abdul-Jabbr’s role in “Airplane” was Pete Rose. (Did you just say, “Wow … ?”)
• That Jack Nicholson turned down roles in “Bad Santa,” “Wall Street” and “Bruce Almighty”.
• That Christian Slater was chosen over Brad Pitt for the lead male role in “Heathers”. (If you have never seen this 1989 film, do it — tonight. It’s one of the all-time “sleepers” in cinematic history.)
• That Michelle Pfeiffer auditioned for the lead roles in “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Flashdance”. (Pfeiffer also turned down lead roles in “Pretty Woman,” “Basic Instinct” and “Silence of the Lambs”.)
• That Barbra Streisand turned down roles in “The Exorcist” and “Poltergeist”.

3. Some 1940s inventions that are still relevant:

• Aerosol spray cans. (The first aerosols were insecticides for the military.)
• Duct tape.
• Flu vaccines.
• Jeeps. (The first such vehicles cost $649.)
• Computers.
• Video games. (In 1947, a scientist patented a video game based on radar displays. It was called a “cathode ray tubed amusement device”.)
• Microwave ovens. (The first patent occurred in 1945.)

Steve Thought O’ The Day – They say 40 is the new 30, and 50 is the new 40. That might be, but Father Time shows many seniors in my age bracket that 9 p.m. is the new midnight.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. For him, 5 a.m. is the new midnight, but he’s still in bed at noon.