Here are a few things that have astronomical chances of happening!
10 - Perfect NCAA bracket Technically, it's not impossible to fill out
a perfect March Madness bracket.
But really, the odds are prrrrrrrrrrretty much impossible, although it COULD happen.
Think you can pick all the winners in the NCAA tournament?
Probably not.
There over nine QUINTILLION different bracket combinations — that’s a nine, followed
by EIGHTEEN zeros, which, if these brackets were filled out by hand and stacked on top
of each other, would be enough paper to reach Pluto and back 60 times.
Theoretically anyways.
However, you COULD trim that down to 128 billion-to-1 odds by factoring in ratings and seedings.
In other words, picking all 63 games correctly, excluding the First Four play in games, is
next to impossible.
You’re literally more likely to play in the NBA.
Oh, and even though there’s speculation out there, there’s no evidence that anyone
has ever filled out a perfect NCAA tournament bracket.
One of the closest people to accomplish the feat was a 17-year-old boy named Alex Hermann
who predicted every game correctly until the Sweet 16.
Then things started to unravel.
9 - Meteorite shower Is there anyone out there that has a legit
fear of getting hit by a meteorite?
Putting an actual number on the chances of being hit by a space rock is difficult since
the events are so rare.
However, Tulane University earth sciences professor Stephen A. Nelson published a paper
in 2014 that made the effort anyways.
He put the lifetime odds of lying from a local meteorite, asteroid, or comet impact at 1
in 1.6 million.
To be honest….that number kinda seems high to me, just cuz there’s billions of people
on earth and where are all the people dying from meteorites?!
Anyways, Ann Hodges from Russia is the only confirmed person in history to have been hit
by a meteorite.
The meteorite crashed through her living room and it ended up hitting her on the side, but
she survived and the story became international news.
8 - Winning the lottery Winning a lottery doesn’t involve skill.
Maybe that’s a gift and a curse.
Since lotteries are determined purely by chance, all you need to do is play and then just be
VERY lucky.
Today, there are many different types of lotteries, from the simple “50/50" drawings at local
events, to multi-state lotteries with jackpots of several million dollars.
Sooooo what are your odds of winning the jackpot?
I don’t think I need to tell you that your chances aren’t good, but the exact odds
depend upon many factors.
In a lottery in which you pick 6 numbers from a possible pool of 49 numbers, your chances
of winning the jackpot are roughly 1 in 14 million.
If you we.re to buy one lottery ticket each week in such a scenario, you could expect
to win once every 269 THOUSAND years!
Okay, seriously, where are the people getting hit by meteorites!!!
Anyways, what’s surprising is that there are many lotteries that have even WORSE odds!
For example, the odds of winning a Mega Millions multi-state lottery are approximately 1 in
176 million!
However, sometimes the jackpots get so big, it can technically become plus EV to play
in the lottery, even if the chances to win are astronomically low!
7 - Struck by lightning Did you guys know that the rubber on your
shoes do nothing to protect you from lightning?
Or that talking on the telephone is the leading cause of lightning injuries inside the home?
Or that standing under a tall tree is one of the most dangerous places to be during
a lightning storm?
Well…..now you do!
Anyways, the chances of you being struck by lightning is extremely unlikely.
The odds of becoming a lightning victim in the U.S. in any one year is 1 in 700,000.
The odds of being struck in your lifetime is 1 in 3,000.
There have been 3,696 breaths recorded in the U.S. between 1959 and 2003.
Injuries range from severe burns and permanent brain damage to memory loss and personality
change.
About 10 percent of lightning-strike victims are grilled, and 70 percent suffer serious
long-term effects.
About 400 people survive lightning strikes in the U.S. each year.
But really……..lightning is nothing to lose sleep over!
6 - Nebraska Choir Miracle A Nebraska church exploded one night back
in 1950, and no one was injured that evening and it was declared a miracle.
Wait a minute, why on earth was this a miracle?
Well, it’s because the explosion happened right after the start of a scheduled choir
practice, but EVERY SINGLE member of the choir was coincidentally late for practice that
night!
Not one of the fifteen people who should have been present was injured because no one had
arrived yet when the building collapsed.
Every single one of the choir members had a valid reason to be late.
One choir member, for example, was working on an important letter while another choir
member and her daughter were late because they had to tend to matters at her mother’s
house before arriving.
Another man was late because he was taking care of his two sons and didn’t realize
until the last minute that he was late.
As you may have already assumed, they immediately called the event ‘An act of God’.
So what’re the chances of 15 people all coincidentally late to avoid a disaster?
Roughly one in a million, although calculating precise odds is pretty much an impossible
exercise.
5 - Planes Trains and Automobiles Are you flying somewhere soon?
Feeling somewhat nervous about it?
Honestly, you have absolutely no reason to be worried; probability is on your side.
Put your headphones on and sit back and relax.
Although more than 40 percent of passengers report fear of being involved in a plane crash,
the odds of being grilled are ridiculously low.
The airplane has revolutionized travel as it’s made journeys that used to take weeks
and months into just a few hours.
What’s amazing about it is that it’s extremely safe, as it’s the safest form of transportation!
Statistically speaking, a person would have to take a flight every day for 55,000 years
before encountering a fatal accident.
You’re more likely to be grilled by a falling coconut.
Or in a car on the way to the airport!
In 2016, 325 people flied in 19 airplane crashes worldwide.
That might seem like a lot, but more than 2,500 left-handed people are grilled every
year from using equipment meant for right-handed people.
The odds of a plane crash are one for every 1.2 million flights, and the odds of lying
in from flying are 1 in 11 million.
The chances of lying in a car?
About one in 5,000.
4 - Shark attack?!
Sharks are probably one of men’s greatest fears during the nice warm summer days spent
at the beach.
But what are the actual odds of getting attacked by a shark?
In 2016, there were 53 unprovoked shark attacks in the US — none fatal — according to
the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.
Worldwide, there were 81 confirmed attacks in 2016, that included four breaths.
The National Aquarium in Baltimore says the odds of being grilled by a shark are one in
3.7 million.
If you’re trying to avoid sharks, your best bet is to NOT be a surfer, as surfers suffer
the most attacks.
However, nearly six in 10 US attacks involved someone engaging in a board sport.
Experts say it’s probably because surfers spend a lot of time in the ‘‘surf zone’’
where waves are breaking, an area sharks also like to hang out.
One other tip is to avoid where seals hang out, because Sharks looooove their seals!
3 - Laser Eye Surgery Anyone scare of lasik?
Well, there’s really no reason to be scared at all!
While most see improvements from Lasik eye surgery, it comes with risks ranging from
severe dry eye to vision loss.
However, the chances of going blind are astronomically low!
About 600,000 Lasik procedures are performed annually in the U.S. according to the FDA.
The elective surgery that costs an average of $2,000 per eye, is used to correct nearsightedness,
farsightedness and astigmatism.
Lasik has a success rate in the high 90 percent range, but of course, not everyone is gonna
be happy with Lasik.
While the chances of most of the problems associated with lasik occurring are less than
0.5% for most people, they still do happen.
However, worrying about going blind really shouldn’t keep anyone up at night.
The chances of going blind from LASIK is almost too small to measure – estimates are around
1 in 5 million.
2 - Blue Lobsters?!
Lobsters caught off the Atlantic coast of North America aren't usually very bright.
In color that is.
They tend to be a murky, greenish brown color... until they’re boiled, and that’s when
they turn into the orangey-red color that’s familiar to lobster lovers.
So it’s no surprise when two fishermen off the coast of Nova Scotia made the news when
they caught not one, but TWO vivid blue lobsters 93 miles apart in quick succession.
Among the region's fishermen, it's traditionally considered to be a sign of good fortune.
The probability of any lobster having this coloring is widely touted as being one in
two million.
The University of Maine Lobster Institute is among those to have quoted these odds in
the past, although its executive director, Rob Bayer, admits that the odds are pretty
much merely a "guess".
Bright blue lobsters happen because of a genetic abnormality that causes them to produce more
of a certain protein than others.
However, there are even rarer colors of lobster out there!
Yellow lobsters account for about one in 30 million of total stocks according to the Lobster
Institute.
But two fishermen in Dorset hit the ultimate lobster-probability jackpot in 2011 when they
caught an albino, or "crystal", lobster - the odds of this are thought to be around one
in 100 million.
1 - Deck of cards Do you know what the odds are of shuffling
a deck of cards into the right order?
Well, what’s the right order anyways?
This one is gonna be relative.
Anytime you shuffle the deck, you put the deck in a order that’s pretty much nothing
short of a miracle, yet inconsequential all at the same time.
That’s because of all the different unique combinations that there could be for just
a single deck of cards.
You’ve just shuffled the deck into a combination that you’ll unlikely shuffle again for quite
a long while.
What are the chances of shuffling a deck into the order that a deck comes in in a new packaging?
That number is 1 followed by 68 zeros.
Sixty eight zeros!
That's a huge number, supposedly roughly equal to the number of atoms in our galaxy.
However, card players still report it happening.
How?!
The reason is in the shuffle.
For example, if a dealer riffle shuffles a fresh pack, which is splitting the deck in
two and interleaving the cards together - the pack can end up back where it was after just
eight shuffles.
Thus, paradoxically, people who aren't very good at shuffling can do a better job of jumbling
a pack than those who are.
But improbable things happen all the time, because "improbability" is an illusion based
on our preconceptions.
Often it has nothing to do with the statistical truth.
Maybe there really is such a thing as ‘luck’!
Here’s what’s next!