,"," Unbiased Coin Tossing With a Biased Coin"

Speaker:
Organiser:
John Barretto
Date:
Friday, 4 May 2012, 15:00 to 16:30
Venue:
A-212 (STCS Seminar Room)
Category:
Abstract
I will discuss some algorithms for simulating a flip of an unbiased coin by flipping a coin of unknown bias. We will discuss efficiency of several algorithms, where the expected number of flips is our measure of efficiency. We will also outline the proof of a conjecture by Hoeffding and Simons that there is no optimal algorithm.