Flipping a coin

[tosca...@gmail.com]

I am using my make-up exam for unit 9 due to illness, which explains the timing of my topic. 

I was wondering if flipping a coin is really random, or if there are just too many variables to reasonably calculate the outcome. If you think about it, you could definitely calculate the center of mass of a coin, the trajectory, speed, and angle at which the coin should hit the ground. Assuming all variables are kept consistent (angle, force at which you flick the coin, coin facing heads or tails to begin, etc), the outcome should be the same every time, right?

I'm know I am reading too much into this, but it is really not sitting with me for the Einstein/Bohr probability principle. 

[G. Randolph Mayes]

Yes, you are completely right about this. Coin flipping is as deterministic as billiard balls and the measured randomness is just due to the fact that in normal coin flipping there is enormous sensitivity to initial conditions, which is to say that very slight changes in the way the coin is held, flipped, caught or not caught, etc. end up mimicking randomness fairly well. But theoretically we could create an environment and a coin flipping machine that would produce very predictable results.

So we talk about coin flipping in this sense only because it is a convenient example and the data we get are just as if it were random.

Also worth mentioning that there may be no such thing as randomness at all. Einstein may ultimately be right about this, we just don't know.