Coin Toss Zero Set Plot


If you can read this, then your browser is not set up for Java. . .

The applet shows the zero set of 3200 successive coin tosses, presented in 8 rows of 400 tosses each. The zero set is the set of values of n where the number of heads and the number of tails are equal. It corresponds to the times when Henry, a gambler, reaches a break-even point. Henry wins a dollar if heads comes up, but losses a dollar if tails comes up, so the zero set corresponds to those times when his wins and losses are equalized. Note that the zero set has a Cantor-dust-like structure.

Hit "Reload" or "Refresh Screen" on your browser to do a new series of 3200 coin tosses. Each series of 3200 coin tosses starts from a value of zero.


Here is the java source code.