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Weekend


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June 27, 2003

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. Of all the amazing coincidences occurring around the world every day, what would be the weirdest of them all?

    A. A day when there was complete absence of all coincidences, answers mathematician John Allen Paulos. When one woman won the New Jersey lottery twice, newspapers reported it as a 1-in-17-trillion feat. Then statisticians Stephen Samuels and George McCabe computed that given the millions of lottery ticket buyers daily, it was "practically a sure thing" that somebody someday would win a state jackpot twice.


     
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