In probability theory and statistics, a sequence of independent Bernoulli trials with probability 1/2 of success on each trial is metaphorically called a fair coin. One for which the probability is not 1/2 is called a biased or unfair coin. In theoretical studies, the assumption that a coin is fair is often made by referring to an ideal coin.
Some coins have been alleged to be unfair when spun on a table, but the results have not been substantiated or are not significant. There are statistical procedures for checking whether a coin is fair.
Read more about Fair Coin: Role in Statistical Teaching and Theory, Fair Results From A Biased Coin
Famous quotes containing the words fair and/or coin:
“A man perfects himself by working. Foul jungles are cleared away, fair seed-fields rise instead, and stately cities; and withal the man himself first ceases to be a jungle, and foul unwholesome desert thereby.... The man is now a man.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
“It is not funny that a man should be killed, but it is sometimes funny that he should be killed for so little, and that his death should be the coin of what we call civilization.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)