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From: crummer%AEROSPACE@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: leaps of faith
Message-ID: <685@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 12-May-84 23:24:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.685
Posted: Sat May 12 23:24:12 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 14-May-84 01:05:34 EDT
Lines: 15

From:            Charlie Crummer <crummer@AEROSPACE>

The activity of tossing a coin can be thought of as an experiment to find out
if the coin is good or not.  Remember the guys that won a bundle on roulette
in Las Vegas?  They studied the wheel and found out its bias.  

I knew a sharp
engineer that worked out a Keno scheme.  He divided the 80 numbers into 4
groups of 20.  He then observed the game for a while and made a histogram of
the hits.  Then he bet on numbers in the LOWEST group, like betting on T after
the string HHHHHHHHHH, because "The Law of Averages" would somehow have to be 
satisfied.  Ideology vs. pragmatism or, in the vernacular of control systems
theory, open-loop vs. closed-loop.  Only humans can exhibit such stupidity!

  --Charlie