Sunday, June 12, 2016

Happy Birthday June 12-thers

June 12 is a very special day in our immediate family. 5 people share their birthday.


The first is my mother's brother, Rony Uncle. Then comes my brother Donald. Then comes my cousin Vanitha. And then unbelievably comes Anitha, Rony uncle's daughter. This itself was huge. 4 people all born on the same day. But for my brother Frank, huge is not enough. It has to be unbelievable. So he got married to Dana. And yes, you got it right. She celebrates her birthday on June 12.

What's even more interesting is, how rare an event is this actually ? To calculate that, we will first need to calculate the total number of people who would fit into the pool of people that form the June 12thers.


That would be Rony uncle and his 7 siblings. And their spouses. And the children of each of the siblings. And their spouses. The total works out to 52. So 5 out of 52 share their birthday on the same day.

You'll be surprised to know that the probability of this happening is much greater than you think. Its over 0.2%. And therefore not really that rare an occurrence. But interesting nevertheless. What's even more interesting is the probability of having 2 birthdays is over 97%. 3 over 12%. And 4 over 1.6%.

As of today they haven't all been in the same place on June 12. Rony uncle lives in Mangalore. Don in San Francisco. Vanitha in New Jersey. Anitha in Bangalore. And Dana in Connecticut. But Mabel, my sister plans to change that. She has taken upon herself the task of getting them all together in the same place. And since most are either in India or in the US, Europe is her choice for the venue.

Here's wishing Rony uncle, Don, Vanitha, Dana and Anitha a very happy birthday and a great year ahead. And here's wishing Mabel all the luck in making this come true. And wishing that she invites me.


p.s.: I may be wrong about the probabilities. So do let me know if you have a different set of probabilities.

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