2024 年 11 月 23 日星期六每日污垢

请耐心等待，直到今天关于皮特·罗斯的笔记……欢迎来到今天组成卷的三个想法。 《每日污垢》第 1,122 期。

Today’s note includes a surprising fact about coin flips, an installment of Did You Know and a look at some 1940s inventions that are still relevant.

今天的笔记包括一个关于抛硬币的令人惊讶的事实、《你知道吗》的一部分以及对 20 世纪 40 年代一些仍然具有现实意义的发明的了解。

1. How many times have you and a buddy “flipped a coin,” simply to settle some sort of mild dispute stemming from where to go grab a burger or who will drive to the football game?

1. 有多少次你和朋友“抛硬币”只是为了解决一些轻微的争议，比如去哪里吃汉堡或者谁开车去看足球比赛？

Flipping a coin is the most 50-50 opportunity to determine an outcome, right?

抛硬币最多是 50-50 决定结果的机会，对吗？

Well, in the words of famed sage Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend.”

嗯，用著名圣人李·科索的话来说，“别那么快，我的朋友。”

While the mechanics of coin flipping are simple enough — guess a side and flip — the physics of how a coin flips are anything but that.

虽然抛硬币的机制很简单——猜一面并翻转——但硬币翻转的物理原理却绝非如此。

By exploring the motion involved, scientists have discovered that coin flips are not as random (and thus impartial) as most of us think.

通过探索所涉及的运动，科学家发现抛硬币并不像我们大多数人想象的那样随机（因此是公正的）。

A 2023 study from the University of Amsterdam flipped 350,757 coins across 46 different currencies and discovered that a coin flipped to its starting position 50.8 percent of the time — close to 50/50, but not quite. In other words, if a coin started heads up, there was a slightly greater chance it would land heads up, too.

阿姆斯特丹大学 2023 年的一项研究翻转了 46 种不同货币的 350,757 枚硬币，发现硬币翻转到起始位置的概率为 50.8%，接近 50/50，但不完全是。换句话说，如果一枚硬币开始正面朝上，那么它落地时正面朝上的可能性也会稍大一些。

That study wound up proving a previous theorem, developed in 2004 in another study, that argued that coin tosses landed as they started 51 percent of the time. That small of a difference would likely not dissuade anyone from practicing a coin flip to settle a dispute — but a more serious concern comes from a 2009 report that revealed coin tosses can be easily manipulated with just a few minutes of practice.

这项研究最终证明了 2004 年另一项研究中提出的先前定理，该定理认为，51% 的情况下，抛硬币会在开始时落地。如此微小的差异可能不会阻止任何人通过抛硬币来解决争端，但更严重的担忧来自 2009 年的一份报告，该报告显示，只需几分钟的练习就可以轻松操纵抛硬币。

The bottom line? If you’re relying on the “randomness” of a coin toss to determine an important decision, make sure you can trust the person doing the flipping.

底线是什么？如果您依靠抛硬币的“随机性”来做出重要决定，请确保您可以信任抛硬币的人。

And if you can’t decide on which person to perform the act? Well … just flip a coin, of course.

如果您无法决定由谁来执行该操作怎么办？嗯……当然，只是抛一枚硬币。

2. Did you know (Part 195)

2.你知道吗（第195期）

Did you know that the first computer virus was created in 1981 by a 15-year-old high school student from Wisconsin? The virus, called Elk Cloner, was designed to spread through Apple II computers via floppy disks and was intended as a harmless prank. However, the virus ended up causing significant damage to some users' computers, leading to its creator's eventual arrest.

您是否知道第一个计算机病毒是由威斯康星州一名 15 岁高中生于 1981 年创建的？该病毒名为 Elk Cloner，旨在通过软盘在 Apple II 计算机中传播，其目的是作为一种无害的恶作剧。然而，该病毒最终对一些用户的计算机造成了严重损害，导致其创建者最终被捕。

3. Some 1940s inventions that are still relevant:

3. 一些 20 世纪 40 年代的发明仍然具有现实意义：

The 1940s was a decade of great technological innovation, with many inventions that are still relevant today. Here are a few examples:

20 世纪 40 年代是伟大技术创新的十年，许多发明至今仍然具有现实意义。以下是一些示例：

• The ballpoint pen was invented in 1943 by Hungarian-Argentine inventor László Bíró. Before the ballpoint pen, people used fountain pens, which were often messy and unreliable. The ballpoint pen quickly became popular for its convenience and ease of use, and it is still one of the most common writing instruments today.

• 圆珠笔由匈牙利裔阿根廷发明家拉斯洛·比罗 (László Bíró) 于 1943 年发明。在圆珠笔出现之前，人们使用钢笔，钢笔通常很杂乱且不可靠。圆珠笔因其方便易用而迅速流行起来，至今仍然是最常见的书写工具之一。

• The microwave oven was invented in 1946 by American engineer Percy Spencer. Spencer was working on a radar project when he noticed that a candy bar in his pocket melted. He realized that the microwaves from the radar were heating the candy bar, and he began to experiment with using microwaves to cook food. The first commercial microwave oven was sold in 1954, and microwaves are now a common appliance in kitchens around the world.

• 微波炉于1946 年由美国工程师Percy Spencer 发明。斯宾塞正在研究一个雷达项目，当时他注意到口袋里的一块糖果融化了。他意识到雷达发出的微波正在加热糖果，于是他开始尝试用微波炉来烹饪食物。第一台商用微波炉于 1954 年售出，如今微波炉已成为世界各地厨房的常见电器。

• The computer was invented in the 1940s by a team of scientists at the University of Pennsylvania. The first computer, called the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), was massive, taking up an entire room and weighing 30 tons. However, the ENIAC was capable of performing calculations that would have taken a human team months to complete by hand. Computers have since evolved dramatically, becoming smaller, faster, and more powerful, and they are now used in a wide variety of applications.

• 计算机是 20 世纪 40 年代由宾夕法尼亚大学的一组科学家发明的。第一台计算机称为 ENIAC（电子数值积分器和计算机），体积庞大，占据整个房间，重 30 吨。然而，ENIAC 能够执行人类团队需要数月才能手动完成的计算。此后，计算机发生了巨大的发展，变得更小、更快、更强大，并且现在被用于各种各样的应用。