
Why do coincidences happen? - karlzt
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/49009/why-do-coincidences-happen
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mooism2
Wouldn't it be spooky if there were no coincidences?

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lutusp
The article bends over backward to avoid anything resembling a rational
explanation, preferring the woo-woo "reasoning" favored by New Age thinkers.

Here's an example of a rational explanation. Bob walks up and says, "I flipped
a coin 20 times and guessed every singe flip correctly. Without psychic
ability, that's impossible!" Alice, Bob's scientifically trained friend, says,
"Actually, no, the probability that this can be explained by chance is 2^-20
or 1 / 1,048,576."

Bob replies, "But doesn't that mean the same thing?" Alice replies, "Not at
all. if a group of a million people flipped 20 coins, the probability that one
or more of of them would correctly guess all 20 is 61%, better than even. That
means if you pay attention to the world, coincidences appear all the time --
we tend to filter out the boring events and focus on the rare coincidences
that fuel irrational belief in magic."

In short, they're called coincidences for a reason.

