Would a falling branch make a sound if nobody heard it?
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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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On a summer afterrnon I was walking in Epping forest. when there was a rustling, crashing noise in the canopy about twenty yards in front of me. I looked up and watched a large branch fall to the ground in a couple of seconds, maintaining a horizontal orientation all the way down. The brach was about two feet thick at its base.
What are the chances of me witnessing the fall? If a two feet thick branch is fifty years old, is it 2 seconds in fifty years?
What are the chances of the branch not snagging or tipping on the way down?
Date submitted:Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:17:48 +0000Coincidence ID:6626
