The Law of Truly Large Numbers

The Law of Truly Large Numbers
With a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen. The point is that truly rare events, say events that occur only once in a million [as the mathematician Littlewood (1953) required for an event to be surprising] are bound to be plentiful in a population of 250 million people. If a coincidence occurs to one person in a million each day, then we expect 250 occurrences a day and close to 100,000 such occurrences a year.

Going from a year to a lifetime and from the population of the United States to that of the world (5 billion at this writing), we can be absolutely sure that we will see incredibly remarkable events. When such events occur, they are often noted and recorded. If they happen to us or someone we know, it is hard to escape that spooky feeling.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/methods-for-studying-coincidences/


14 August 2012

From 1973 through 1996 the only pitching triple crown winner was Dwight Gooden in 1985. This is the list of winners since:

 YEAR LEAGUE PITCHER WINS Ks ERA

1997 AL Roger Clemens (Toronto) 21 292 2.05

1998 AL Roger Clemens (Toronto) 20 271 2.65

1999 AL Pedro Martinez (Boston) 23 313 2.07

2002 NL Randy Johnson (Arizona) 24 334 2.32

2006 AL Johan Santana (Minnesota) 19 245 2.77

2007 NL Jake Peavy (San Diego) 19 240 2.54

2011 AL Justin Verlander (Detroit) 24 250 2.40

2011 NL Clayton Kershaw (L.A.) 21 248 2.28
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