It is fun to run simulations of situations like that. I think it is most pleasing because all you have to do is write a little code, and you get a whole bunch of data in return.
If you still care, here is the actual answer to that problem.
P(n,d) is the probability that at least two people in a group of n will share the same birthday out of d possible birthdays.
P(n,d) = 1 - d!/((d-n)!*d^n) (boy do we need MathML)
Of course, this probability is always less than one since there is some chance nobody will share birthdays, so how many people you need in the room before you make your bet depends on how much you are willing to risk. If you want a 75% chance of winning the bet, you need at least 32 people. For a 99% chance, you only need 55 people.
-
Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
-
Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
<code> <a> <b> <big>
<blockquote> <br /> <dd>
<dl> <dt> <em> <font>
<h1> <h2> <h3> <h4>
<h5> <h6> <hr /> <i>
<li> <nbsp> <ol> <p>
<small> <strike> <strong>
<sub> <sup> <table>
<td> <th> <tr> <tt>
<u> <ul>
-
Snippets of code should be wrapped in
<code> tags not
<pre> tags. In fact, <pre>
tags should generally be avoided. If they must
be used, extreme care should be
taken to ensure that their contents do not
have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent
horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor
intervention).
-
Want more info? How to link
or How to display code and escape characters
are good places to start.
|
