[Avodah] kosher switch

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 09:55:49AM +0100, Chana Luntz wrote:
: But, it seems to me, the more innovative bit about this kosher switch is the
: introduction of randomness.  The point being that, if you toss a coin, you
: have a 50% chance of not getting a head.  If you toss it again, then you
: only have a 25% chance of not getting a head on one of those two times.  If
: you toss your coin again and again and again, the chances of you not getting
: a head at least once gets smaller and smaller and smaller.  BUT the chance
: that you never get a head remains (and will remain until infinity).   So in
: theory this kosher switch might *never* work, it just means that the
: probability of it never working gets smaller and smaller and smaller the
: longer time goes on (and the more coin tosses are done)....

At some point, the probability gets to be a small enough miut that it's
ignorable. IOW, I don't think being goreim something that rov of the
time violates an issur is any more mutar than geramah of a vadai. And
even if there is a difference of which I'm unaware, how big of a rov
can one not treat the same as vadai?

I think that threashold of nearly-always would be crossed relatively soon
after flipping the switch if the manufacturer wants something reliable
enough that people would use it.

GCT!
-Micha

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Micha Berger             We are great, and our foibles are great,
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