As We've Had So Much Fun With Probability Questions....

[ToraToraTora]

how many people in a room must there be to have an even money chance of 2 of them sharing a birthday, ie month and day?

[Buenchico]

23
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

[Zacs-Master]

http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-22978,00.html

For the 'math'....
https://www.physics.harvard.edu/uploads/files/undergrad/probweek/sol46.pdf

[ToraToraTora]

awe come on guys you could have waited for someone to say 180 or something! I remember asking this in my club once and no one would beleive it! even when I explained!

[Zacs-Master]

'my club'........
mmm.

[ToraToraTora]

mmm What The Funicular does that mean?

[New Judge]

23

[Zacs-Master]

it means....the mind boggles.

[ToraToraTora]

why? because I go to a club? not sure what's going on in your loaf me old china!

[Zacs-Master]

Ahh.... I'd forgotten how much fun it could be on here.

[Buenchico]

>>>and no one would beleive it! even when I explained!

You must be a better maths teacher than I ever was if you can explain that to 'the guys in the club'. I struggled to explain it to able A-level students!

[chrissa1]

2. Me and my daughter.

[chrissa1]

Ok. Thirty three years apart but hey, what's a few years?

[jim360]

I think there is a thing that a lot of people have that basically amounts to "I don't actually trust maths", or at least they trust it less than they do intuition. It's probably the same reason for the recent fun over confusing probability, that is basically confusing because people's intuition leads to their considering the wrong question and/ or losing information about the problem.

Also trying to explain why 0.999... =1 is an exact expression is a fun one.