6 ms·
Given access to repeated uses of a coin of unknown bias "p" (which is not 0 or 1) you can (eventually) always generate a new coin flip with bias given (exactly)
by Q_is_4_Quantum 3y ago
Given access to repeated uses of a coin of unknown bias "p" (which is not 0 or 1) you can (eventually) always generate a new coin flip with bias given (exactly) by:
1. 1/2 (i.e fair - von Neumann)
2. p^2
3. p^2/(p^2+(1-p)^2)
4. sqrt(p)
Number 4 really surprised me, I learned it from this paper: http://www.math.chalmers.se/~wastlund/coinFlip.pdf http://www.math.chalmers.se/~wastlund/coinFlip.pdf
But you can never generate the biases:
5. 2p
6. 4p(1-p)
Although... if you change the game to allow a quantum coin then 5. and 6. are possible (a paper of mine: https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.06183 https://arxiv.org/abs/1509.06183)