Two brothers

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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.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

In the early 1970s when I worked for the Inland Revenue a form came in saying that a David Brown (not his real name) was staring work ina local business. A few days later another form came in saying that David Brown was staring work with the same company. Both young men had been born on the same day so I told a colleague the company had made a mistake and sent the tax office a duplicate form. My colleague told me this wasn't so. he truth was that a man's wife and mistress gave birth to sons on the same day by the same father (the husband). In a fit of pique the mistress gave her son the same first name the wife gave her boy. Neither boy met each other until their father's funeral, when they were both young men. From that day on they became inseperable, moved in together and always worked for the same company. I know nothing of their subsequent history.
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Date submitted:Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:16:38 +0000Coincidence ID:4769