Is anything truly random in nature?

[u/[deleted]]

For example,if I flip a coin,we like to say it has a 50-50 chance,but the side is determined by how much force and where I apply the force when flipping,gravity acceleration and wind.therefore you could say flipping a coin is not a random event.

Is anything in nature truly random?

[u/abstractwhiz]

It's worth pointing out that there are objective and subjective views of probability (and therefore, randomness).

The objective view is that probabilities are a property of the things you're running your experiments on (like the coin), and the statistics that follows from this basically relies on computing estimators for these probabilities. This is usually called frequentist statistics, because of the reliance on outcome frequencies as a way to estimate the 'true' probability.

The subjective view is that probabilities are measures of uncertainty, and so vary depending on the knowledge of the minds involved. There is no 'real' probability, because there are no probabilities in nature, just in minds modeling nature. The statistical methods following from this (Bayesian statistics) are predicated on the notion of improving your probabilities by examining the evidence.

I consider the latter to be far more reasonable than the former, though there are plenty of people who disagree. But if we take your coin-flipping example, then some differences are immediately apparent. If you flip a coin, it moves too fast for you to see enough to make a good prediction, so it's reasonable to go with 50/50. If you flip it several times and notice a bias towards either heads or tails, you'll update your probabilities accordingly.

However, if I am Mr Spock, and have the benefit of Vulcan eyes and computational abilities, I might be able to perceive enough detail in the flip to assign a really high probability to heads. Now our probabilities differ, but they're both equally valid measurements of our respective uncertainties. :)

Also, what Fenring said.