An Experimental Mathematics Perspective on the Old, and still Open, Question of When To Stop?

by Luis A. Medina and Doron Zeilberger

Gems in Experimental Mathematics, Contemporary Mathematics, 517, 2010, 265-274.
In a recent article in American Scientist, Theodore Hill described a coin-tossing game whose pay-off is the number of heads over the total number of throws. Suppose that at a given point during the game you have 5 heads and 3 tails, should you stop and get 5/8, or should you keep playing, hoping to get a better score? This is still an open problem. In the present article, we explore different strategies to this game from the Experimental Mathematics perspective.

Julian Wiseman

Julian Wiseman provided an estimate that explains why it is good to stop when you have 5 heads and 3 tails.

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