Statistics: The Birthday Paradox

This has always been one of those problems that I have loved exploring. I recently found a website that will model the outcome in a brilliantly beautiful way. Here’s a little more about it from the Birthday Problem Wikipedia page:

In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomly chosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday.

By the pigeonhole principle, the probability reaches 100% when the number of people reaches 367 (since there are only 366 possible birthdays, including February 29). However, 99.9% probability is reached with just 70 people, and 50% probability with 23 people. These conclusions are based on the assumption that each day of the year (excluding February 29) is equally probable for a birthday.

It may seem surprising that the probability is above 50% when there is a pair with the same birthday for a group as small as 23 individuals. This is made more plausible when considering that a comparison will actually be made between every possible pair of people rather than fixing one individual and comparing him or her solely to the rest of the group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem

The Pudding’s Russell Goldenberg has created this website to demonstrate this paradox.

Click to visit The Birthday Paradox Experiment website

Have a visit, have a play and contribute to the data.

I would absolutely use this as a hook the next time I need to tackle statistics with an upper Key Stage 2 class!

Linkpudding.cool/2018/04/birthday-paradox/

Free Download: Mathematical Vocabulary Flashcards

The following ten files are a straightforward set of mathematical vocabulary flashcards. I have grouped them by topic and have written on in small lettering where in the curriculum the term is introduced.

A sample page from the addition and subtraction group is shown below. All of the pages share the same design.

Page 1 of “Addition and subtraction vocabulary.pdf”

Feel free to share with colleagues – I would love to know how they are being used.