It does not seem useful to hold fixed ideas about the results when working with a statistical
investigation. Usually, during an investigative process, influencing variables are discovered
through data collection. In the specific case of the students who were dropping the coin, the
teacher rejected the experimental data because he had already predetermined the result.
However, he could have explored it in other ways. For example, if the experiment were carried
out as the students were doing it, by dropping the coin, would the results be the same as if it
were done according to the teacher’s instructions? Indeed, what would be the result? Would the
coins’ mass influence the results? What if, instead of a coin, the students flipped a bottle cap?
What would be the probability of each face falling upwards? Another point to consider is that
the results presented by the students who dropped the coin are possible (it is part of the sample
space), so if the teacher was suspicious he could ask the students to repeat the data collection,
assuring himself of the students’ neutrality.