A True Coincidence?

     It seems like everyone has been a little down lately so I figured I’d post something more on the funny side than the dark side of conspiracies and mysteries. First, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy Summer Solstice, us wiccans/Pagans call it Litha. The celebration of Summer, my second favorite season. Today is also the longest day of the year which is another nice bonus, I like long summer days more than short winter days for sure! Anyhow, Happy Summer to all and I hope that the Goddess (or whomever you may believe in) blesses you and yours. Don’t worry things are getting brighter! Now for the post. I found this article and I had to share, it is so crazy! I for one don’t believe in coincidences, I believe the Universe or the Fates have everything predetermined (to a point) but this article really got me thinking. I think you guys ill enjoy this. Here we go.

     Dr. Tom Leonard, a professor of statistics at the University of Warwick, England, provided the following observations and story to author Arthur Koestler in 1974:

A particular coincidental event has, by definition, an infinitesimally small probability of occurring. However, there are infinitely many events which might possibly occur coincidentally to a particular person but, as it happens, do not occur. If we summed over all possible coincidental events, then we would find the probability of at least one of them occurring during the person’s lifetime to be quite sizeable. I would indeed be surprised if many people could say that they had never experienced an extreme coincidence.

     The best coincidence yarn I know of runs as follows. In his first lecture at this University, a new professor of statistics was describing the laws of probability to his students. To illustrate them, he removed a coin from his pocket and tossed it into the air. It landed on a polished floor, spun around a few times, and to a thunderous applause came to rest-VERTICALLY ON IT’S EDGE! The point is that this was one of many coincidences that might have happened.

The chances of a perfectly rounded coin coming to rest on its edge after being tossed have been calculated by mathematician Warren Weaver at approximately ONE BILLION TO ONE! (Alan Vaughn, Incredible Coincidence, pp.198-99).

Wow! That is some crazy COINcidence! (I’ve been waiting the entire post to do That!). It makes me think about coincidences and the chances of truly random events. What do you guys think?

Have a great day and as always: PEACE!!!!! Let’s all try to be happy together, more positivity means less  negativity!