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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
Assuming that a coin toss has a 50/50 chance of coming up heads or tails (i.e., it isn't a weighted coin or there is some other factor making the odds other than 50/50) then the odds of a coin coming up heads or tails on the 1,000 the toss will always be 50/50 regardless of how many times the coin has come up with heads in a row previously, even as incredibly improbable as it is that it would come up heads 999 times in a row previously. Obviously, if the coin did come up heads 999 times in a row, I might investigate whether the odds truly were 50/50.
Permalink Mon, 20 Aug 2012 19:42:56 UTC | #951080