Do you believe that a lot of the things that happen are just random? Given enough time any particular thing will just randomly happen? There are mathematical formulas that express this, they are called factorial. I have always been fascinated with this formula and have used it in a lot of things that I wonder about. Let me give you a small example. If you have five different colored blocks, how many different ways can they be arranged? The formula is 5 factorial or 5! and it is solved by multiplying 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 (of course you don't need the "1" at the end, but I just put it in there to show that there is five items). The answer is that there are 120 different arrangements. Now, if you were playing a lottery that had five numbers and those numbers were 1 through 5, you would have a 1 in 120 chance to win. So why haven't I got all 5 numbers right on the Texas Pick 5 lottery? You only have to guess 5 numbers, right? Wrong!! You have a field of 37 numbers to pick from. That factorial would be 37 x 36 x 35 x 34 x 33 . . . . x 3 x 2 x 1 minus 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 or 37! - 5!. That is one huge number! Now I know why I haven't won in all the years I have bought tickets.
Now that I have talked about factorials, let me pose a question to you all. What do you think the chances of life appearing on Earth all on its own would be? You better have a lot of zeroes and a huge paper to write the probability of it happening here on Earth. And for human kind to develop on its own, would be a much bigger factorial than I could imagine. Just something to think about this Sunday morning. Now you all have a great day today, you hear?
say,,,huh?
ReplyDeleteditto
DeleteSo . . . you could say that lotteries are a tax on people who can't do math? :)
ReplyDeleteTrouble and B.B., do you really want me to show more math???
ReplyDeleteSixbears, that is correct. Except for people like me who buy the tickets anyway. . . We are the hopefull ones, not necesaraly the winning ones.
You mean there's more???
DeleteI love that math stuff! Too bad I don't get paid any more to think it, say it, and write it.
ReplyDelete