Three-faced

[Jack Shalom]

"How do you make a three-sided coin?

A normal coin lands with heads facing up half the time, tails facing up half the time — almost never on its side. But if you make the coin really thick, so it becomes a long cylinder, it will land on its side almost 100% of the time. How thick does the coin have to be to land on its side exactly one-third of the time? The mathematician John von Neumann is said to have determined that a coin has a 1/3 chance of landing on its edge if the ratio of its thickness to its diameter is 1/(2√2). About a decade ago we showed that if you factor in the conservation of angular momentum, you get a different answer: A fair three-sided coin should have a width-to-diameter ratio of 1/√3. One way of picturing that is to glue eight quarters together. We also carried out experiments confirming that we were right, and we devised a method for creating customized coins with varying probabilities of heads, tails and “sides.” "

https://www.quantamagazine.org/l-mahade ... -20201026/

Some interesting origami insights there as well.

[Brian Douglas]

Interesting... but why not just use a 30 sided die with 10 divisions? IE: 1-3 repeated on the 30 sided die, or segement 1-10 = 1; 11-20=2; 21-30=3.

[Jonathan Townsend]

? for that matter how about using a regular die ... okay you can make it metal and write heads and tails on the sides

[Brian Douglas]

... or H,T, and S 10 times each

[Dr. Solka]

There are FOUR possibilities for a coin toss.
1. Heads
2. Tails
3. Landing on its side.
4. The coin stays in the air.
:=))

[Brian Douglas]

...5 if you allow for a vanish.

[MagicbyAlfred]

...but only one possibility if you allow for a certain (unnamed) magician who uses a double-sided coin when flipping with his friend to determine who buys drinks at the pub that night.

[Jack Shalom]

Persi don't need no stinkin' double-faced coins.

[Edward Pungot]

It's interesting that when in flight the coin is literally in a superposition state and remains so theoretically until the observer looks.

What if you don't look?

[Jonathan Townsend]

So if you know how fast it's moving you can't determine the heads/tails?
Should also be true when you slap the coin down onto the table or your other hand. Heads and Tails are undetermined till you lift your hand and look.
Funny thing is that if you lift your hand and other people look they might see a different coin

[Edward Pungot]

Revision: The final resting position of the coin on the hand or the table is finalized. The eyes are just there to confirm the outcome. The superposition is simply a temporary state in the mind until an observation is made. Gravity has the final say.

[Edward Pungot]

Funny thing is that if you lift your hand and other people look they might see a different coin

A Chinese coin would be funny.
Or a huge block of ice on the table under a hat.