A Little Birthday Wisdom
Today is my birthday (yay!) and if you’ve been reading, I’m celebrating over in Finland. Yay!
September birthdays seem to be eerily common, and I was shocked to find out that another MHCIer shared my birthday once I got to Pittsburgh two years ago (Happy Birthday Hari!). It makes you wonder, just how common is that? Well, if you haven’t done this exercise in statistics class, you should do it at your next party.
Apparently, with 23 people or so, you have better-than-chance odds of having a duplicate birthday. With 65ish people, it’s pretty much a guarantee. So, for those of you who have 70+ friends on your social networking site of choice, you should check the birthday calendar - you probably have friends that share a birthday.
However, the odds of people sharing your birthday are much lower per person, which makes me pretty special. Aside from two friends who share a birthday on the 8th, and two more on the 18th, Marcie, Hari and I are all turning a year older today – a pretty low probability event given the number of people I know on Facebook.
Read all about the birthday odds. And if you’re Vince, Eric, Chaia, or anyone else who took that stats class with me… I know this isn’t new to you. But it’s my birthday and I’ll repeat meaningless trivia if I want to.
Haha this is you.
Comment by Vince — September 13, 2006 @ 1:25 am
ZEEEACH!! I just re-added your blog to my favorites now that I’m starting over from scratch with my computer, and I can’t BELIEVE I missed your birthday again!!!! I emailed you on your birthday and didn’t even know that that’s what it was. I don’t know how you stay friends with me–I don’t think I have EVER remembered your birthday, the entire time that I have known you. I am so sorry! Everytime I just freak out and apologize a lot, which I’m sure is exactly what you want on your special day (or in the following week…whenever I figure it out).
Happy Birthday! Hey, I don’t know what Finland’s time zone is like, but maybe it’s still September 12 there…is that the case?
Comment by Sarah — September 13, 2006 @ 8:59 pm
I STILL DON’T KNOW ANYBODY WITH MY BIRTHDAY. Well minus a friend of a friend who turns the same age as me every year.
But still. My facebook says nobody shares my birthday!
Comment by Jenn — September 14, 2006 @ 12:51 am
Don’t feel bad… scope out that article. The odds are actually really low - even with 200 people on Facebook (I’m sure you have that many friends but I haven’t checked), you still only have 40% odds of having someone who shares your birthday.
But the odds are actually in my favor, being a September baby. For some reason we’re more common. Actually one can hypothesize a reason, but I won’t get into that here. Cheers!
Comment by zaiss — September 14, 2006 @ 5:04 am