Have you ever been unable to decide what game to play, what movie to watch or what to order at a restaurant? At some point, you’ve probably just flipped a coin to make the decision for you. The heads or tails flip of a coin is the ultimate way to decide randomly between two choices without playing favorites. But, have you ever wondered why a coin flip is random? To help us understand this question, we turn to our friends at TIME.

The answer is not because a coin is magical. In fact, the reason coin tosses are random has nothing to do with coins at all! They are random because the people flipping them don’t toss them the same way twice.

Think about it. Could you flip a quarter using your thumb with identical force and toss it from the same height every time? The answer is no. Little differences in the angle of the toss, how far away from the ground the coin is and how much muscle you put behind the toss all make each coin toss unique.

According to TIME, if you put a robot in a room and had it precisely flip a coin the same way every time, it would no longer be random. It would always be heads or always be tails. Since we are not robots and have less precise movements and strength, we get half heads and half tails (and a good way to make decisions).