Knowledge Science | Statistics
A have a look at the counterintuitive arithmetic of shared birthdays
Water cooler small speak is a particular type of small speak, sometimes noticed in workplace areas round a water cooler. There, staff incessantly share every kind of company gossip, myths, and legends, inaccurate scientific opinions, indiscreet private anecdotes, or outright lies. Something goes. So, in my Water Cooler Small Speak posts, I focus on unusual and often scientifically invalid opinions I’ve overheard within the workplace which have actually left me speechless.
Right here’s the water cooler opinion of as we speak’s put up:
I work in an workplace flooring with 60+ folks, and final week two of them had their birthdays on the identical day. Realizing they shared their birthday, that they had a dialog someplace alongside the next strains:
– I can not consider we’ve got our birthdays on the identical day!
– Sure, what are the possibilities?
..and everybody commented on how unusual it was. A loopy, karmic coincidence…
🌌🥳
However for actual, what are the possibilities? With a fast estimation, one might imagine that the probabilities of such an occasion must be very low…