Statistical Curiosity......

Share your memories and stories from your days at school, and find out the truth behind the rumours....Remember the teachers and pupils, tell us who you remember and why...

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Mid A 15
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Statistical Curiosity......

Post by Mid A 15 »

Given that there are many Old Blues NOT registered or posting on the forum, how weird is it that there appear to be no fewer than 3 posters who once held the House number Barnes B 25?
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Post by cstegerlewis »

I thought that when I first added my sig!
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Post by Richard Ruck »

I really must stay in more..... :wink:
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Mid A 15
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Post by Mid A 15 »

Richard Ruck wrote:I really must stay in more..... :wink:
In my job you are trained to be observant and having browsed the house number thread I happened to see a post on another thread from Craig shortly afterwards :)

I am a bit of an anorak though at times if I'm honest!
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Post by Richard Ruck »

Off topic, but just to amuse Mid A 15 - I was at the checkout in Waitrose on Saturday, when the young bloke on the till suddenly piped up:

"Sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Alan Titchmarsh?" ...

I think there's a conspiracy here somewhere.
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Post by Mid A 15 »

Richard Ruck wrote:Off topic, but just to amuse Mid A 15 - I was at the checkout in Waitrose on Saturday, when the young bloke on the till suddenly piped up:

"Sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Alan Titchmarsh?" ...

I think there's a conspiracy here somewhere.
Excellent! :lol: :lol:
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Post by sejintenej »

Richard Ruck wrote:Off topic, but just to amuse Mid A 15 - I was at the checkout in Waitrose on Saturday, when the young bloke on the till suddenly piped up:

"Sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Alan Titchmarsh?" ...

I think there's a conspiracy here somewhere.
I wouldn't have thought you looked that much like him. Yes, you do have a lump on top of your thorax and two long thinnish things on the base of your abdomen - just like him, but the rest?

OTOH I had an email from my daughter recently after she had been to the Musee des Beaux-Artes (Art Gallery) in Chartres where she saw my portrait. Apparently it is a perfect likeness (she should know after 36 years) but the name under it was that of Walter S***. That surname is that of my father - I now use an adoption name. I know nothing of my father's family so the name Walter is unknown. Am I being stalked by a canvas?
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Post by Vonny »

Richard Ruck wrote:Off topic, but just to amuse Mid A 15 - I was at the checkout in Waitrose on Saturday, when the young bloke on the till suddenly piped up:

"Sorry, but has anyone ever told you that you look like Alan Titchmarsh?" ...
I can't believe you've just admitted that on the forum :shock: :lol: Not after all the stick you got from (some of) us a while back :lol:
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Re: Statistical Curiosity......

Post by matthew »

Mid A 15 wrote:Given that there are many Old Blues NOT registered or posting on the forum, how weird is it that there appear to be no fewer than 3 posters who once held the House number Barnes B 25?
Less weird than you might imagine. :)

It's a similar situation to the well known 'birthday paradox': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_paradox.

Working out exactly *how* weird it is would be a little tougher. You only have one birthday, but many of us have had more than one house number.
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Post by wurzel »

On the birthday front in LH myself and tim (veggie) shared exactly the same b'day and there a guy 1 year above with the same b'day as well. 3 out of 50 must be quite high odds
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Post by Katharine »

I remember teaching probability theory to a class and explaining the birthday paradox. It was a fairly small group as some were on a field trip, I asked whether there was a coincidence - not only was there one in the class as a whole but both girls were there, AND they shared August 23rd as a birthday - which is mine and Mrs C's (not that I knew her then!). Thus there were three of us with the same birthday and less than 20 people in the room.
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Post by sejintenej »

Katharine wrote:I remember teaching probability theory to a class and explaining the birthday paradox. It was a fairly small group as some were on a field trip, I asked whether there was a coincidence - not only was there one in the class as a whole but both girls were there, AND they shared August 23rd as a birthday - which is mine and Mrs C's (not that I knew her then!). Thus there were three of us with the same birthday and less than 20 people in the room.
OK, so a couple of teasers for you - all absolutely true.

I'd never been to the dogs before but had to go with a party from my wife's work. Put a bit on a dog in the first race and it won. Ditto up to race 6. Race 7 I didn't bet on because I was not happy with the form. Won on race 8 and 9 but race 10 was like race 7 - no bet. Yes - I was using a "system" based on info published in London's evening newspaper (The Standard). What are those odds for 8 wins in 8 races? (It did pay for the evening beer and entrance.

I think it was the Financial Times which discovered that "claimed to be purely by chance) al-Bank al-Saudi al-Alami in London had well over 100 employees of which over 80% had the same star sign.

Where I worked (and we didn't consider it in interviews) out of about 60 staff five or so did NOT have one of two star signs (ie 55 out of 60 shared one of two star signs - which were not the same as the bank in the previous para

Methinks as odds are very odd!
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Post by J.R. »

sejintenej wrote:
Katharine wrote:I remember teaching probability theory to a class and explaining the birthday paradox. It was a fairly small group as some were on a field trip, I asked whether there was a coincidence - not only was there one in the class as a whole but both girls were there, AND they shared August 23rd as a birthday - which is mine and Mrs C's (not that I knew her then!). Thus there were three of us with the same birthday and less than 20 people in the room.
OK, so a couple of teasers for you - all absolutely true.

I'd never been to the dogs before but had to go with a party from my wife's work. Put a bit on a dog in the first race and it won. Ditto up to race 6. Race 7 I didn't bet on because I was not happy with the form. Won on race 8 and 9 but race 10 was like race 7 - no bet. Yes - I was using a "system" based on info published in London's evening newspaper (The Standard). What are those odds for 8 wins in 8 races? (It did pay for the evening beer and entrance.

I think it was the Financial Times which discovered that "claimed to be purely by chance) al-Bank al-Saudi al-Alami in London had well over 100 employees of which over 80% had the same star sign.

Where I worked (and we didn't consider it in interviews) out of about 60 staff five or so did NOT have one of two star signs (ie 55 out of 60 shared one of two star signs - which were not the same as the bank in the previous para

Methinks as odds are very odd!
I understand that the odds on ALL the dogs losing in North Korea are quite high ! :lol:
John Rutley. Prep B & Coleridge B. 1958-1963.
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Post by Rory »

wurzel wrote:On the birthday front in LH myself and tim (veggie) shared exactly the same b'day and there a guy 1 year above with the same b'day as well. 3 out of 50 must be quite high odds
nothing odd there - I have the same birthday as my brother - except 2 years apart - maybe our parents only did it once a year ????
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Post by Katharine »

Rory wrote:
wurzel wrote:On the birthday front in LH myself and tim (veggie) shared exactly the same b'day and there a guy 1 year above with the same b'day as well. 3 out of 50 must be quite high odds
nothing odd there - I have the same birthday as my brother - except 2 years apart - maybe our parents only did it once a year ????
My two brothers shared a birthday - but they were 3 years apart. (I was 13 months younger than the younger one so they must have forgotten the right date!! :oops: :oops: )
Katharine Dobson (Hills) 6.14, 1959 - 1965
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