Birthdates

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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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I had never met anyone with the same birthday as myself until about twelve years ago when I was involved with a group of people who were trying to save a local landmark building (Hill Paul in Stroud, Gloucestershire) from demolition. On the Committee of the Hill Paul Regeneration Group, in order to set up a bank account or something official, we had to give our dates of birth and the chairman asked why I had given his birth date as mine! After all these years (I was in my 50s at the time) I had found a twin! Not only the same birthday but the same year, 29th January 1944! The Hill Paul building still stands! A few years ago, my husband and I were in London on the 28th January when we passed a shop window in which were displayed a rather nice pair of boots at a very reasonable price. We went in and the boots were tried on and found to be very comfortable. My husband declared, "Happy Birthday!" and I said, "but it's not until tomorrow!". There were three other women in the shop besides the owner. One of the women excitedly explained that she and her mother were in London as a birthday treat for her mother whose birthday was the next day (like mine) and the other woman said that she was looking for a present for her son whose birthday was also the next day! I sent this story to Alex Bellos and he very kindly worked out the odds of this happening but I can't remember off hand what they were.
Total votes: 305
Date submitted:Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:29:59 +0000Coincidence ID:4638