19 boys
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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.
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My wife's family has lots of boys, so the news that our next grandchild will be a girl has caused us to count them up. Since my wife's birth there have been no fewer than 19 successive boys born in her parents' line (she also has two older brothers). Together the three of them have had 7 boys, who in turn have had 12 boys. Fortunately the chances of this happening are easy to calculate - either 1 in 2^19 or 1 in 2^18 if one specifies 'boys' rather than 'same sex', i.e. 1/524288 or 1/262144, impressive numbers either way. Some members of the family think we have a biological propensity for boys, but I think it's just a coincidence...
Date submitted:Fri, 23 Oct 2015 11:27:17 +0000Coincidence ID:8271
