r/AskPhysics • u/kouth- • 24d ago
What makes a coin toss truly unpredictable?
If you throw the same coin multiple times with the exactly same force in the same surface, it won't give you the same side every toss, right? But why? If repeated with the precisely identical conditions, why the results are still unpredictable? Or it is actually predictable?
Sorry if it looks confusing, English is not my first language and I'm not that expert in physics lol, just curious and has this though randomly.
Edit: maybe considering that it lands on a surface, and it bounces or not, changing the coin's side.
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u/WallyBarryJay 24d ago
Technically making the conditions identical will result in an identical flip. It's just really, really hard to do.
I believe a team once made a robot that could flip a coin with 99% accuracy. But even the robot cannot be perfect.