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Heads or tails? Be wary if a friend offers to flip a coin to determine who buys the next round in the pub. Because though the simple and apparently random method of tossing a coin to help make a decision has been used for centuries, scientists have now discovered that it is surprisingly easy to manipulate the odds of a coin landing the right way up.

'And it's all about practice,' says Matthew Clark, an ear, nose and throat consultant at the Royal Hospital in Gloucester. 'Because that way, it is possible to become consistent enough to predict the result.' Clark is the joint author of a study into the art of tossing a coin that found that it is possible to control the outcome after just a few minutes' practice. The trick is not any specific technique but simply learning to toss consistently, and therefore predictably.

So what are the secret tricks to always winning the toss?

CHOOSE YOUR COIN
Some coins are not perfectly shaped  -  and therefore, with practice, can be made to land on one side more often than the other. Also, when spun on a hard surface, it landed heads-up 56 per cent of the time.

PLACE IT CAREFULLY
The side of the coin that starts off in the face-up position is slightly more likely to end up that way. According to one study, there is a 51 per cent chance of getting a head if you start heads-up, or a tail if you start tails-up.

TOSS IT GENTLY
Studies have found that it is easier to control the outcome if you toss the coin gently  -  letting it spin only three or four times  -  rather than vigorously.

KNOW YOUR COIN
Some might consider it cheating, but it helps if you know the feel of each side of the coin you are flipping. Then, after you have flipped and caught the coin, and as you transfer the coin to the back of your other hand in order to reveal which way up it is, sneakily slip a finger under the coin and give it a stroke. If you have practised beforehand, you'll be able to tell whether the raised pattern is heads or tails  -  and make a correct call.

STOP THE SPIN
Magicians sometimes use this method. If done correctly, the coin simply flutters in the air, rather than spinning around its axis, creating the illusion that it is turning without it actually doing so. This means, of course, that when you catch it in the palm of your hand, it will always be the same way up as it was when you flipped it. The technique is to hold the coin on your index, ring and middle fingers. Then flick your wrist and raise your index finger to launch the coin, flicking it just hard enough to get it wobbling in the air but not enough to turn it over. Simple.

ALWAYS BE BOTH THE FLIPPER AND THE CALLER
Because in order to predict which way up the coin will land you need to know which way up it started, and to be in control of the flip.

Daily Mail

 

 

Vocabulary

heads or tails - fej vagy írás
apparently - látszólag
consistently - egyenletesen, következetesen
predictably - előre megjósolhatóan, kiszámíthatóan
toss - (fel)dobás
spun - pergetett
gently - finoman, óvatosan
vigorously - erőteljesen
sneakily - nagyon óvatosan, alig láthatóan
stroke - lökés, ütés
to flutter - lebegés
wobbling - imbolygó

Easy tutorial
How to win the coin toss?

 

 

 

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