What are some commonly known facts that are too bizarre for you to believe to be true?

zirzedolta@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 379 points –

For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some 'organic element' since I couldn't accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

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The birthday paradox

If you get 23 people in a room the odds of two of them sharing a birthday are 50%

The birthday paradox is a veridical paradox: it seems wrong at first glance but is, in fact, true. While it may seem surprising that only 23 individuals are required to reach a 50% probability of a shared birthday, this result is made more intuitive by considering that the birthday comparisons will be made between every possible pair of individuals. With 23 individuals, there are (23 × 22)/2 = 253 pairs to consider, far more than half the number of days in a year.

it's not part of the paradox, but there are also days when people tend to have more sex
like new years, valentines, christmas etc. (in the west at least)
so you tend to get more people born 9 months after those days

In high school my graduating class was 38. The one before us was 21, the one after 18.

Coincidently there was a massive blizzard that snowed everybody into their house for a week about 9 months before my birthday.

I listen to This American Life also.

i don't know what that is

! I just assumed, lol

They have an episode where they talk about the birthday paradox and then follow it up with talking about how the math isn’t 100% correct as applied to humans bc birthdays aren’t normally distributed.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/630/transcript#:~:text=A%20simple%20way%20to%20think,those%20two%20share%20a%20birthday.

Blows my mind how this by its bare bones is just simple statistics and combinations but is a totally different story when described in English. I'm sure there are similar facts like this that are mathematically logical but to a layman is confusing and inconceivable.

I'm sure there are similar facts like this that are mathematically logical materially sound but to an layman american it's confusing and inconceivable

communism

So not really then. I've always heard this but not seen it explained. But what you're saying is that with every interaction the likely hood of finding a match goes up. But realistically, probabilities like that are just fun quirks of math, not representations of reality. Probabilities are doing the math on events, but these are events discussing concrete and unchanging dates. Every person paired up isn't given a random date in every interaction. They have a set date from the outset, you just don't know it. There's not a random number generator picking a number from a set every time. Unless you're in a simulation and none of this is real and birthdays don't exist and the computer you're plugged into has to make up a random birthday every time you interact.

Sorry, but I honestly have no idea what you’re trying to say. If you have questions you can click on the Wikipedia link!

Ah. Sorry, I assumed you knew what you were talking about about and not just copy/pasting a thing you found. My bad.

It helps if you can compose a coherent sentence! :)

Your inability to understand is not my problem. I suggest a reading comprehension class. I understand that some of those big words like "Probabilities" and "math" might be too much for you. It's okay. We all have things we're good at. You'll find yours one day.

That's completely wrong lol. Nowhere is there an assumption that birthdays are randomized each time, you just don't understand the math.