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Birthday problem (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/wikipedia@lemmy.world
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In probability theory, the birthday problem asks for the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, at least two will share the same birthday. The birthday paradox is the counterintuitive fact that only 23 people are needed for that probability to exceed 50%.

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[–] 1 point 1 month ago (3 children)

I find that interesting, in my family unit of my 2 parents, 4 siblings and our 5 partners, we don't even have 2 birthdays in the same month - which just makes it sound even more counter-intuitive to me, not that I'm disbelieving it, just relating it to my personal experience. . Once we go to the next generation, with my children, nieces and nephews, that adds another 12 people and the closest we got was 3 days apart.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    What made me understand this was realizing that it meant any two people. The first time I heard this I was thinking that if I was in a group of 70 or 80 people, there was almost a 100% chance of someone having the same birthday as me. But it's not comparing to an individual, it's comparing all of the pairs. I hope that makes sense

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