Friday, October 19, 2007
ODDS
This morning, on my bike ride, I found myself riding toward a guy walking away from me and and a couple walking towards me.
We were all clocked to come together at the very same spot in the sidewalk/bikepath.
I slowed.
The couple slowed a bit. We missed each other by a couple feet.
What are the odds of finding 4 people at the same time in the same place at 630 AM when I have only seen maybe ten people in a ten mile circle? These people are scattered pretty evenly over the 10 miles except just at this point.
Pretty low odds, I would say.
And yet, this situation arises quite frequently.
I know that these events are not subject to 'random number' analysis.
First of all, we are on a path. So we are not talking about the full circumscribed area. Just the linear distance.
There are also places where there it would be unlikely to see any people at all.
But these do not really account for much. It is all walk/bikeway.
I know that there are clusters of homes along the route and, one would think, there would be more walkers near those areas.
But this occurred in the middle of a golf course.
And so on.
I like coincidence.
