giftedkids

Have you ever heard of the birthday problem? This is also known as the birthday paradox. The problem is this: In a group (or class) of 25 people, what is the probability that two or more people share a birthday? I was looking at this problem with my grade 6 son recently. At first glance, it seems simple, but in actuality, it’s a very difficult, complex problem, normally taught in grade 12. The problem is a paradox, not because it’s without solution, but because the answer is much higher than one would normally expect. There are many ways to solve the problem, not one of them was easy for me to understand. Thank goodness I have a friend who is a high school math teacher – she was able to help us out. Here is a web site dedicated to this topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

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