andrel wrote:

> What I sometimes do is point out that there probably have been born less 
> than 12 billion people in total. 6 of them are still alive, hence the 
> statistical support for the idea that everybody dies is rather weak.
> 
> It is a nice examples to show that most people don't understand 
> exponential growth.

Hmm. How the **** do people compute numbers like this? I mean, how can 
you *possibly* know how many people are alive right now? Obviously it's 
an estimate, but how do we tell if it's even remotely correct? It's not 
like you can *check* it!

I still like Warp's "grains of rice" example. (If only I could remember 
who the hell it was about...)

> And indeed most people look surprised.

Try this: Walk up to somebody, and quietly tell them "you're going to 
die". Watch the look on their face. Seriously, they act like this is 
*news* or something...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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