On 12/3/2017 7:11 PM, Bruce Kellett wrote:
I think it is most likely that the magician knows the way the coin is lying initially, and simply counts the number of spins, catching the coin after the appropriate even or odd number. As you suggest, this trick would not work if you allow the coin to land on a hard surface, because one wouldn't have sufficient control the angle of impact or the subsequent bouncing. But once again, the trick is unlikely to rely on controlling the initial conditions of the toss all that finely -- one simply has to control the landing by a soft catch. Lyapunov exponents are unlikely to have anything to do with it.
That's what Persis Diaconis says he taught himself to do. Brent "Statistics is the physics of numbers." --- Persis Diaconis -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
