Have you ever been in the situation where you are undecided about what to do, or what to choose, between two different options? If so, then you may very well have decided to put it down to chance and flip a coin. You choose heads for one option and tails for the other, and it seems a fair way to settle things once and for all.
However, spare a thought for an English composer by the name of Jeremiah Clarke.
Poor Jeremiah had decided that he was going to commit suicide, but as he stood at the side of a lake he was unable to decide if he would do so by either hanging himself or going into the water and drowning. Due to his dilemma, he felt that the best thing to do was to go ahead and flip a coin.
So, out comes a coin, he decides which option is going with which side, and as he stands on the mud at the side of the lake, he tosses the coin into the air.
Now, this sounds fair, as it would lead to one decision winning over the other, but it didn’t. Unfortunately for poor old Jeremiah, the coin landed on its edge in the mud meaning it had failed to land on either side.
For most people, they would either decide that this was a sign that killing themselves was a bad idea or do it again. However, he decided against doing either. So, what did he do instead? He went home and shot himself!