The most improbable event

Discussion in 'Physics & Math' started by alexb123, Sep 2, 2009.

  1. Nasor Valued Senior Member

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    I don't need to actually measure the exact position in order to calculate the odds of it landing at whatever position it landed at. Much like I don't need to actually know the order of cards in a shuffled deck in order to calculate that the odds of getting whatever order I have is 1/52!.
     
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  3. CptBork Valued Senior Member

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    I thought this one was unbeatable, but now I think I have a more improbable event for you:

    Kim Jong Il gets 18 straight holes-in-one in his first try at golf, and Chuck Norris gets 0.
     
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  5. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    Hell, first part of that is not improbable at all. Kim did that twice in the last month. See article: Glorious leader perfect scores twice this month. in N. Korean People's Daily, issue of 29 August. page 1. Chuck Norris may have trouble getting into even one hole sometimes also.

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    PS - it more improbable that you don't know what I am refering to. Kim scoring twice is news, at his age. - Cause for national celibration.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2009
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  7. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    That's not just improbable; it's actually heresy.

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    May Chuck have mercy on you. Although, of course, we know he will not.
     
  8. §outh§tar is feeling caustic Registered Senior Member

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    Is that rumbling I hear the universe running away to hide?

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  9. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    "... Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Group of 20 finance chiefs pledged to avoid weakening their currencies to boost exports and to let markets increasingly set foreign exchange values to defuse trade tensions before they hurt the world economy. ..."

    (No comment necessary by Billy T.)
     
  10. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    I warned you. Now you've doomed us all.
     
  11. krreagan Registered Senior Member

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    Randomly choose two atoms from the universe and what are the odds that these two atoms shared the same molecule at the same time at some time in the past.
    KRR
     
  12. Pinwheel Banned Banned

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    A sciforums poster is convinced of anothers' argument.
     
  13. Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

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    The OP said improbable... What you're saying is closer to impossible.
     
  14. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    It's like firing neutrons at each other. Maybe innocuous, maybe not. But who wants to take the chance?
     
  15. Killjoy Propelling The Farce!! Valued Senior Member

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    Aren't they doing that sort of thing all the time these days at the "Black-Hole-Create-O-Tron", or whatever the hell they call that thing...?
     
  16. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    No. AFAIK, there is no way to accelerate a neutron. (Except it will fall in a gravity field.)
     
  17. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Protons, whatever. Let me know when whales start falling from the sky. Because they will. Soon.
     
  18. RJBeery Natural Philosopher Valued Senior Member

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    "Best" answer. Simple, and the entropy reference is apropos for the forum.
     
  19. Billy T Use Sugar Cane Alcohol car Fuel Valued Senior Member

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    From the report of the just concluding APEC meeting in Japan:

    "In the draft, the leaders also promise to reduce risks of disruptions from speculative capital, such as the huge flows of cash many in the region fear may flood their markets, driving their own currencies higher and prices higher, due to moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve to stimulate the U.S. economy by printing money. ..."

    Quote from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101113/ap_on_bi_ge/as_apec

    Billy T comment; Rather than FED cancelling QE2's printing of 600 billion new dollars to flood into other markets with several times greater than US growth rates, I bet that when QE2 does not boosts US economy (except banker's profits with the free money the FED will deposit in their 12 "correspondent banks") and does not reduce the unemployment problem; that QE2 will be followed by QE3, then QE4, at less than year intervals etc. until the dollar collapses.
     
  20. RenaissanceMan RenaissanceMan Registered Senior Member

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    Wow, deep, Nasor. Really.

    Every time you deal out the deck, you're beating impossible odds.

    What are the odds.

    Just this morning, I walked out on my driveway to pick up the newspaper. There was a slight drizzle. The few drops that fell spelled out
    DJIA OPEN 11,569.26 CLOSE 11,403.12

    I looked at it, and then thought to myself, "Heck those raindrops are just as unlikely to fall in that configuration as any other," and then walked back in.

    The day before, those drops had spelled out "LOTTERY WINNING NUMBERS
    3, 17, 26, 31, 47, 49." It was no big deal. I bought one ticket with those numbers and picked up $46,000,000. They were just as likely as any other number. The raindrops didn't do anything special. In fact, since I won, my probability of winning was 1.
    And as any statistician knows only infinitely well, the probability of those raindrops giving me the winning numbers was likewise 1.



    It's all so simple.....
     
  21. Green Destiny Banned Banned

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    The exact nature of the Uraguayian Andes Plane crash in my eyes, is a most improbable event. The way they survived the crash is beyond belief.
     
  22. Mr MacGillivray Banned Banned

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    Jesus returning to earth.
     
  23. Gremmie "Happiness is a warm gun" Valued Senior Member

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    "The most improbable event"

    The Detroit Lions ever winning a Super Bowl..

    Maybe that should go under list of impossible events..
     

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