Call it In the Air: An Investigation into

 Penny Flipping Behavior

By: Olga Navros and Caroline Saul

January 13 - February 11, 2005

Introduction

The goal of our project was to determine if a relationship existed between the side of the penny facing up before it is flipped into the air and the side facing up at the top of the penny’s trajectory, assuming the penny is hit at the same place and with the same force each time. To investigate this matter, we created a penny launcher, to flip the penny into the air with a constant force, out of wood and a spring launcher. To capture multiple images of the flipping penny in our photograph, we used 8 flashes in conjunction with a photogate trigger and a computer intervalometer program that controlled the flash discharge delay and interval time. We analyzed the data from our pictures with a statistical method called a Chi-squared test. However, we did not have enough data to reach any statistical conclusions.

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