Statistics nerds rejoice, because here comes the mathematical miracle of all time.
Meet David Rennick. David is a normal guy in most ways, but there is one thing about him that’s pretty cool. Here it is in his own words:
“I don’t even see color. I just try and treat everyone equally, you know?”
OK, David doesn’t see color, so he has no way to know what race anyone is. Well … and? Here’s where it gets cool:
Despite the fact that he doesn’t see color, all of David’s friends happen to be white. Probabilistic. Section. Of. Mind. Equals. Blown.
Let’s make sure we appreciate just how improbable and straight-up awesome this is. White people make up 63 percent of the US population. David has 14 close friends. The odds that all 14 would be white is 0.63 to the fourteenth power. Brace yourself—here comes the number…
The chance that all 14 of David’s friends would be white is a mind-bogglingly low 0.14%.
ZERO. POINT. ONE. FOUR. PERCENT.
That is cool enough by itself, but here’s where it gets even freakier. Let’s expand the list from just David’s close friends to the 30 people he feels most comfortable with. Get this: Every single one of them is white too. I mean, could this story get anymore unlikely and awesome? Those odds are 0.00001%.
If I remember my math classes correctly, I think there’s a technical term for colossal coincidences like this … oh yeah, “pretty frickin’ rad”!
—A. Kinnane
