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Meaningless info

stubeeef

stubeeef

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Aug 10, 2004
2,715
4
Well, haven't been around this parts in a long time-but I had a meaningless discovery today and this is the only place I know of that meaningless has meaning. (see political forum)

Anyway everyone in my family (me+wife+3children) were all born on an odd number day.

So, Q what does this mean?
 
stubeeef said:
So, Q what does this mean?
Click to expand...
It means ... *looks at avatar*
image.php
baaaah! What is THAT!? *shudders*
 
stubeeef said:
Anyway everyone in my family (me+wife+3children) were all born on an odd number day.

So, Q what does this mean?
Click to expand...
Since you and your 4 family members weren't born very often, the days on which you were born were unusual, i.e., out of the ordinary, i.e., "odd"! ;)

But we can look at the real math too. The chances of 5 people all being born on odd days of the month are 1 in 29.0, taking into account the 4-year leap year cycle. (I'm lazy so I ignored the once-per-century leap year adjustment.)

Interestingly, there are longer odds against 5 people all being born on even days. The chances are 1 in 35.4. That's because many months have 31 days, making an odd-numbered day more likely than an even-numbered day. Overall, 50.99% of the time (745/1461) it's an odd-numbered day and 49.01% of the time (716/1461) it's an even-numbered day. So we should celebrate the even days for being so rare, unusual, and special. :)

When I was a kid I noticed that in any given year everyone in my household had their birthdays on the same day of the week. For example, we might all have our birthdays on a Monday one year. That must be proof of some fantastic theory of human connections.
 
My sister was born on the 14th (a saturday) and my brother was born on the 12th (a thursday). Wouldn't it be interesting if I, the middle child, were born on Friday the 13th?
 
TuffLuffJimmy said:
My sister was born on the 14th (a saturday) and my brother was born on the 12th (a thursday). Wouldn't it be interesting if I, the middle child, were born on Friday the 13th?
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Funny-I was born on a Fri 13th! And as you see in my Avatar-I could be your brother or sister or both.:confused:
 
4 or 5 people in my close family were born in the first two weeks of January (both my daughters, [in different years], my partner's aunt, my partner's sister, my grandmother, and my dad.)

My geekiness fails on dates, so I haven't calculated the probability of that happening. Probably somewhat related to the probably of 2 people in a group of 12 having birthdays on the same day, which I recall is quite high.
 
My cousin, brother-in-law, and niece were all born on the same day of the year.

My sister and her husband were not only born on the same day of the year, but in the same year. He doesn't know what time of day he was born so we don't know who's older!

I wonder how often twins are born so close to midnight that one is declared to have been born before midnight and the other after, meaning they have different birthdays. And if it happens to be a year crossing a decade or century boundary, that would be even cooler!
 
stubeeef said:
Well, haven't been around this parts in a long time-but I had a meaningless discovery today and this is the only place I know of that meaningless has meaning. (see political forum)

Anyway everyone in my family (me+wife+3children) were all born on an odd number day.

So, Q what does this mean?
Click to expand...

IDK but this sounds pretty odd to me...
 
stubeeef said:
Well, haven't been around this parts in a long time-but I had a meaningless discovery today and this is the only place I know of that meaningless has meaning. (see political forum)

Anyway everyone in my family (me+wife+3children) were all born on an odd number day.

So, Q what does this mean?
Click to expand...

If Q equals probability, then odds of having 5 people born on an odd day is about 3.2%
 
Doctor Q said:
I wonder how often twins are born so close to midnight that one is declared to have been born before midnight and the other after, meaning they have different birthdays. And if it happens to be a year crossing a decade or century boundary, that would be even cooler!
Click to expand...

This happened in my neck of the woods this past new years: http://www.wral.com/news/local/noteworthy/story/8863429/

When I saw the story I also wondered how often often this happens. I googled and the same thing happened for Massachusetts twins born on December 31st 2000 and January 1st 2001 meaning that they were each born in a different millennium. How cool is that?
 
There's really nothing interesting with birthdays in my family, but there is with phone numbers: my parents' landline phone number, mom's cell phone, sister's cell phone, and aunt's landline phone all end with the same 4 digits, just in different order.

In the last 4 of my dad's cell, 3 of the 4 digits match, and 2 of 4 match in mine and my brother's numbers - although my brother's an interesting case because if the 4 digits of my parents' landline are ABCD the last 4 of his cell is DDCD.

And no, we didn't get all of the cell numbers at the same time (I know some carriers sometimes give sequential numbers if getting them at the same time), they were spread out over different years on different carriers, and one of them is from a different area code on the other side of the country.

I think we should play the lottery with those numbers.
 
Last edited:
panoz7 said:
When I saw the story I also wondered how often often this happens. I googled and the same thing happened for Massachusetts twins born on December 31st 2000 and January 1st 2001 meaning that they were each born in a different millennium. How cool is that?
Click to expand...
I was hoping that such a thing had happened. :)

I hope they hold to their claim and ignore whiny complaints from Douglas Adams.
 
Doctor Q said:
When I was a kid I noticed that in any given year everyone in my household had their birthdays on the same day of the week.
Click to expand...

All on the same side of Feb. 28th, I presume. My birthday, before 2/28, is always the same day of the week as Christmas, 1/1 and Lincoln's birthday.

I'm the only one in our household (2 kids) whose birthday is on an odd-numbered day.

My uncle recently died. That day was his brother-in-law's birthday. My sister-in-law's mother-in-law recently died. That day was my sister-in-law's birthday. My Dad died three months to the day before my oldest son's birthday (same number). He (my son) was born on my wife's uncle's birthday. A friend just announced he is getting married - on my parent's anniversary. My mother-in-law had heart surgery two years to the day after my Mom died. Ted Kennedy died that same day. I know two people born on the same day as me. (not the same year)

My point is this: there are only 365 or 366 days in the year. There are lots and lots of people. Thus, there are lots of coincidental dates. I once read that you need about 13 people assembled to get at least two born on the same day (not the same year).
 
Gregg2 said:
All on the same side of Feb. 28th, I presume.
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Correct. Otherwise the Jan/Feb birthdays wouldn't match the others over leap years and non-leap year.

The bigger your family, the more "amazing coincidences" are likely to occur!
 
RedTomato said:
4 or 5 people in my close family were born in the first two weeks of January (both my daughters, [in different years], my partner's aunt, my partner's sister, my grandmother, and my dad.)
Click to expand...

Sounds more like the people in your family like to get it on in the first few weeks of April. Perhaps April Fool's day? Or just before taxes are due?
 
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