EXAMPLE 4.2 Some Coin Tossers

The French naturalist Count Buffon (1707–1788) tossed a coin 4040 times. Result: 2048 heads, or proportion for heads.

Around 1900, the English statistician Karl Pearson heroically tossed a coin 24,000 times. Result: 12,012 heads, a proportion of 0.5005.

While imprisoned by the Germans during World War II, the South African mathematician John Kerrich tossed a coin 10,000 times. Result: 5067 heads, a proportion of 0.5067.