Friday, February 29, 2008

February 29th Leap Year

Just think. If I had been born on February 29th, I’d only be 14 years old. I wouldn’t have to contend with all those birthday cakes and people could save up and buy me a really nice gift when my birthday did roll around. Or….what about this? I could celebrate my birthday on February 28th and March 1st.
I don’t think I have ever met anyone that was actually born on February 29th. I know there must be millions, but I don’t recall ever meeting anyone. I did hear a statistic about birthdays that said if you put 20 people in a room, there is a 50/50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday.
I Googled this and found a website called How Things Work and they gave this explanation:
This phenomenon actually has a name -- it is called the birthday paradox, and it turns out it is useful in several different areas (for example, cryptography and hashing algorithms). You can try it yourself -- the next time you are at a gathering of 20 or 30 people, ask everyone for their birth date. It is likely that two people in the group will have the same birthday. It always surprises people!

Anyhow, I hope you all have a great Leap Year Friday 29th.

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