May 9, 2008
After 10,640 flips, tails fails at Middlesex
|
Tails never fails
Or does it?
Middlesex Middle School set out last Thursday with $10.64 in pennies to prove, or disprove, the age old adage.
After 10,640 penny flips, 5,323 came up heads and 5,317 came up tails — a six flip difference.
The Great Flip kicked off at 8:15 a.m. when every person in the building — all 1,064 of them — took a penny and flipped it 10 times and recorded the results.
“It was fun,” seventh-grader Oscar Barbour said. “It was cool seeing all the pennies simultaneously flying in the air.”
“It’s cool because it was based on a myth that one side comes up more than the other,” Oscar added.”
Oscar is in Robert Timmons’ homeroom. Timmons started the hands-on probability study last year. Thursday was the second time Middlesex had a Great Flip.
“The math department discussed what would be a neat way to discuss probability in class,” he said. “So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to get the whole school to do something at the same time. Then I told one of my classes how it’s a 1-in-1,024 chance to get only heads in 10 flips. Then a student said, ‘Well there’s about that many kids in the school.’”
So the test became, how many people would flip an entirely one-sided flip? After 10,640 flips, the Middlesex answer was four people got 10 heads and four people got 10 tails.
 |
“We wanted to try and figure out what would come up more,” seventh grader Jenny Beally said.
“People said tails would come up more because heads is heavier,” seventh grader Vanessa Budd said.
So it turns out that heads might actually come up more often than tails — but barely. Percentage wise it was or it was heads 50.028195 percent of time versus tails’ 49.971805 percent. But another 10,640 flips just may bring a new set of results.
“The kids loved it, they had a lot of fun with it,” Timmons said.
Each lesson in classes that day revolved around probability. The math classes studied the heads-tails probability.
The English classes wrote letters to the television show, Mythbusters, asking about myths associated with flipping coins.
“We haven’t gotten a response, but we’re hoping we do,” Timmons said. “It would be pretty cool if they did a show geared around that.”
Instead of writing to Mythbusters, some students wrote to the Guinness Book of World Records asking if it was a record for most simultaneous flips of a coin.
If so, the Great Flip may make its way into the famed book.
“I had a tie between the two,” seventh grader Michaela Brady said. “It was a really fun experience and I hope we do it again next year.”
“Mr. Timmons is a great teacher, he has some really great ideas,” seventh grader Hillary Conciatori added.
E-mail Darien Times reporter Austin Amoroso at aamoroso@darientimes.com.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
|
