Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Math Quiz

I have a math question for any really smart people who happen upon the Meow. I've wondered this for a very long time--twenty years in fact. I mentioned yesterday that today was the twentieth anniversary of the day I married my beloved. What I didn't mention (because seriously, why would you care?) is that Friday is also our birthday. Yes, I said our birthday, as in both my husband and I have the same one. What are the odds of that? Really, I want to know the answer to that question. I took a probabilities and statistics class in college in the early eighties, but I have definitely lost the knowledge of how to calculate this one, if I ever learned it in the first place. I think that the odds of any two people having the same birthday can be calculated by multiplying 365 by 365--the number of days in the year multiplied by the number of days in the year--this accounts for all possible combinations--I think that will get you close, or at least start you in the right direction. Maybe. It's been a long time. (Although the chances of a specific person having your birthday is one in 365, right? Or wrong. Is that wrong?) How do you factor, though, for the odds of two people who meet, fall in love, and get married, also having the same birthday? The numbers have to go way up at that point, don't they? So anyway, if you're a really smart person, who has happened to stumble by accident onto the Meow, would you please take a little of your time and calculate this one out for me? You would be answering a very old question, and letting me move on to more important things, like why does one sock always lose its mate in the wash?