Today is my sister-in-law Debbie's birthday. You might be wondering what that has to do with the number 23. She is NOT 23 today. I think she is 51. Today is obviously not the 23rd. I found this article on Wikipedia under "Birthday Problem".
In probability theory, the birthday problem, or birthday paradox pertains to the probability that in a set of randomly chosen people some pair of them will have the same birthday. In a group of 23 (or more) randomly chosen people, there is more than 50% probability that some pair of them will have the same birthday. For 57 or more people, the probability is more than 99%, tending toward 100% as the pool of people grows. The mathematics behind this problem leads to a well-known cryptographic attack called the birthday attack.
Cool. Of course, if mathematicians ever got married, they'd realize that certain dates lend themselves to conception. February 14th comes to mind.
Other 23 trivia:
- Michael Jordan wore number 23
- Dr. Pepper is advertised as having 23 flavors.
2 comments:
If mathematicians ever got married...talk about exposing the albino white grub of an underbelly...
That comment just takes the cake.
I'm glad I'm an engineer and not a mathematician.
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