Comments on: Understanding the Birthday Paradox http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/ Learning shouldn't hurt. Let's share the insights that made difficult ideas click. Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:43:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0 by: Jon http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-159693 Fri, 30 May 2008 13:17:38 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-159693 It's funny. There are actually two birthday paradoxes. The other comes from logic and is actually, actually, according to Quine, a veridical paradox, where it appears to be paradoxical, yet is proven true anyway, the fact that someone turns 7 when they are twenty-eight years old (born feb. 29), much like this birthday paradox. What is interesting is that the two overlap. So to properly treat the birthday paradox (your version) you would have to take this into account. So a very interesting treatment would be: what happens to the probability of sharing a birthday when you take into account feb 29, twins, triplets, etc, the fact (i believe) that there are higher frequencies of babies born during certain times of the year than others. I might work this out, if asked, but I don't think it would work out to 50% out of 23. It would be interesting to see how close it was though. It’s funny. There are actually two birthday paradoxes. The other comes from logic and is actually, actually, according to Quine, a veridical paradox, where it appears to be paradoxical, yet is proven true anyway, the fact that someone turns 7 when they are twenty-eight years old (born feb. 29), much like this birthday paradox.

What is interesting is that the two overlap. So to properly treat the birthday paradox (your version) you would have to take this into account.

So a very interesting treatment would be: what happens to the probability of sharing a birthday when you take into account feb 29, twins, triplets, etc, the fact (i believe) that there are higher frequencies of babies born during certain times of the year than others.

I might work this out, if asked, but I don’t think it would work out to 50% out of 23. It would be interesting to see how close it was though.

]]> by: Kalid http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-146765 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:36:15 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-146765 Sounds great Brittany! And if you have 75 people at your fair, you're almost guaranteed to have a match :). Sounds great Brittany! And if you have 75 people at your fair, you’re almost guaranteed to have a match :) .

]]> by: Brittany http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-146751 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:59:06 +0000 http://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/#comment-146751 Thanks for this...im gonna use this as an idea for science fair! Testing to see if the Birthday Paradox holds true. 23 in a room, 50% chance two will match! Can't wait! Thanks for this…im gonna use this as an idea for science fair!

Testing to see if the Birthday Paradox holds true.
23 in a room, 50% chance two will match!

Can’t wait!

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