I'd heard it before but it surprises doesn't it.SuperCooper wrote:The Birthday ProblemCharlesTubborce wrote:I'd like to see how you worked that out.picaroon wrote:How many girls were there in total in the two bars? If there were 23 there's a 50% chance that two share a birthday.gavinmac wrote:
After quickly calculating the odds of this in my head, I decided that either: (a) this was a remarkable coincidence,
I make it about a 6% chance.
It was new to me too.
From that Wikipedia article:
"In a group of just seven random people, it is more likely than not that two of them will have a birthday within a week of each other."
And:
"An informal demonstration of the problem can be made from the List of Prime Ministers of Australia, in which Paul Keating, the 24th Prime Minister, and Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister, share same birthday i.e. 18 January.
James K. Polk and Warren G. Harding, the 11th and 29th Presidents of the United States, were both born on November 2.
Of the 73 male actors to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, there are six pairs of actors who share the same birthday.[11]
Of the 67 actresses to win the Academy Award for Best Actress, there are three pairs of actresses who share the same birthday.[12]
Of the 61 directors to win the Academy Award for Best Director, there are five pairs of directors who share the same birthday.[13]
Of the 52 people to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, there are two pairs of men who share the same birthday.[14]"
To me the biggest lesson is that most of us are not as smart as we think we are.