New Research on Coin Tossing

[lindsay]

Here's the latest from the University of British Columbia:


http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=NjExODk4NQ==

 

[44bob123]

Coin tossing statistics

I recently did some digging regarding coin tossing and came up with similar results on several sites. It's not a new discovery. Quite often one side of a coin tends to come up more often as it is heavier due to the particular design on the face. This is without actually trying to manipulate the outcome.

There is also a way of greatly increasing the chances of one side coming up by putting some water, or spit, surrupticiously on the face.

All good stuff, eh!

Bob

 

[meng]

Matter behaves differently when observed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc&feature=player_embedded

 

[Sparhawk]

Now, that's a smart "observation"

 

[jesed]

Matter behaves differently when observed.

I'm sure you remember the paradox about the cat inside the box: Is the cat death or alive?

Damn..this kitty is wiser than that
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/01/13/im-invisible/

 

[meng]

I don't know that one, Jesed. Care to share it?

Love the image.

 

[jesed]

I don't know that one, Jesed. Care to share it?

Love the image.

"Schrödinger's cat is a famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory of superposition, proposed by Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. Schrödinger's cat serves to demonstrate the apparent conflict between what quantum theory tells us is true about the nature and behavior of matter on the microscopic level and what we observe to be true about the nature and behavior of matter on the macroscopic level.

Here's Schrödinger's (theoretical) experiment: We place a living cat into a steel chamber, along with a device containing a vial of hydrocyanic acid. There is, in the chamber, a very small amount of a radioactive substance. If even a single atom of the substance decays during the test period, a relay mechanism will trip a hammer, which will, in turn, break the vial and kill the cat.

The observer cannot know whether or not an atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently, cannot know whether the vial has been broken, the hydrocyanic acid released, and the cat killed. Since we cannot know, the cat is both dead and alive according to quantum law, in a superposition of states. It is only when we break open the box and learn the condition of the cat that the superposition is lost, and the cat becomes one or the other (dead or alive). This situation is sometimes called quantum indeterminacy or the observer's paradox : the observation or measurement itself affects an outcome, so that the outcome as such does not exist unless the measurement is made. (That is, there is no single outcome unless it is observed.)

We know that superposition actually occurs at the subatomic level, because there are observable effects of interference, in which a single particle is demonstrated to be in multiple locations simultaneously. What that fact implies about the nature of reality on the observable level (cats, for example, as opposed to electrons) is one of the stickiest areas of quantum physics. Schrödinger himself is rumored to have said, later in life, that he wished he had never met that cat."

 

[meng]

Thanks for explaining. :bows:

 

[lloyd]

So the cat is let from the bag.
Meanwhile, reading lindsey's posting, do we flip or not ?..

 

[my_key]

Hey the article has gone missing!!
Some sort of interference going on here

 

[robibiro]

regarding the link that Meng posted following to this very profound observation "Matter behaves differently when observed" i ve watched the video and was simply amazed.
i carried on some research (very superficial) on google wikipedia and so on about this experiment, and i want to share with this community my feeling about this.
...there are some scientists that still assume that the weird behaviour of the single electrons is caused by the interference of the monitoring device.
and yet there are scientists that assume that the monitoring device does not have and cannot have any interference.
i feel that if really there is no interference, this is such a big thing...its like the proof of how science its limited in its purpouse to consign us the 'truth' about the world we live in.
forgive my enthusiasm, but this thing finally made my left side of the brain be at peace iwth my right side...
do u know more about this experiment and its latest developments?