The Birthday Paradox

And the nature of probability

Image by Suzy Hazelwood

I hope you’re sitting down for this one!

When I was in high school, I heard about this phenomenon called the birthday paradox. It is loosely stating that in a room of only 23 people, the probability that two or more people have their birthday on the same day is more than 1/2, i.e. there is a chance of at least 50% that two or more people’s birthdays…