3 ms·

How strange. I just checked my Smile account and I've generated £6.01 for my charity (my childrens' school). What are the odds...

• cecilpl2 6y ago
  From my perspective, the odds are fairly high that in a large group of people, two of them happen to have the same Smile account balance.
  • ldrndll 6y ago
    Sure, but in this case it was a case of me not knowing one could check their Smile balance. GP posted their balance, prompting me to check mine, and the total was the same. That feels more akin to me going into a room and the first person I talk to having the same birthday as me than just finding 2 people in a room who happen to have the same birthday.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • sillysaurusx 6y ago
      The situation is probably closer to this: Lots of people went into a room and asked someone what their birthday is. Only you happened to have the same one, so no one else said anything. But, congrats on using up your luck for the next month or so. :)
    • jtsiskin 6y ago
      If I posted “Think of a number. 1-100. Got it......... You’re thinking of 17!” some of the hundreds of readers would be amazed by my accurate prediction
  • colonelcanoe 6y ago
    That's the classical birthday "paradox" but that's not what happened here. Here, a random person in the room announced their birthday, and the question is whether someone else in the room shares that birthday. It's a very different situation, where I'm guessing you need around a thousand people for it to be very likely that their birthdays coincide, compared to the twenty or so for the birthday paradox.