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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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