I have this friend who's a real numbers whiz. While most of you probably think he is a K-State alum, he actually didn't immigrate to the United States until after attending college in his home country (some Eastern Bloc remnant). Anyway, he is renowned for his statistical prowess. Really one of the great minds of our time.
We discussed the recent Triple Crown, noting championships in the only sports that people care about being won by one university in the same year. From a statistical standpoint, my friend couldn't have been more impressed. Using the age of the Earth (4.54 billion years), and the fact that a Triple Crown had only occurred two other times in history, we obviously could calculate that such an accomplishment only happens once every 1.51 billion years. In other words, the odds of this happening again next year, for example, are 1 in 1,510,000,000!!!
Taking it one step further, my numbers guru friend started trying to find something to compare those odds to in order to put it in perspective. Here is the closest thing he has found to compare it to: The odds of a university winning a Triple Crown are nearly equal to a random individual winning the powerball lottery on the same day that the Hale-Bopp comet passes in front of a solar eclipse! Incredible!
