《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第107期:隨機祝福電話(2)
On the other hand, about 60 people are killed by lightning in the US every year. That means there's only a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000 chance that you'll call someone in the 30 seconds after they've been struck and killed.
Lastly, let's suppose that on the day this book was published, five people who read it decide to actually try this experiment. If they call numbers all day, there's about a 1 in 30,000 chance that at some point during the day, one of them will get a busy signal because the person they've called is also calling a random stranger to say “God bless you.”
最後，我們不妨假設在這篇文章發佈的當天，有5位讀者決定實踐一下。如果他們24小時沒日沒夜地不停打電話，那麼有三萬分之一的機率他們打給的那人正在通話中——因爲那人也在給別人打相同的祝福電話。And there's about a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000 chance that two of them will simultaneously call each other.
而有十萬萬億分之一的機率在同一時刻這兩個無聊鬼正好互相打給對方。
At this point, probability will give up, and they'll both be struck by lightning.
此時此刻，老天爺看不下去了，於是一道閃電把他們都劈死了。1 Based on a rate of 4 per 100,000, which is the average in the US but on the high end for industrialized countries.
1． 基於美國平均十萬分之四的謀殺率計算，這個比例在發達國家中算是高的了。2 Citation: You are alive.
2． 引用：你還活着。3 For context, that's 490 repetitions of the song “Hey Jude.”
3． 這個長度相當於Hey Jude重複播放490遍。4 Over 58 hours of research, four sneezes were the most interesting data points. I might've taken the 490 “Hey Jude”s.
4． 在整個58小時的試驗期間，4個噴嚏是最有意思的實驗數據。我寧願聽490遍Hey Jude也不想做這個實驗。WEIRD (AND WORRYING) QUESTIONS FROM THE WHAT IF? INBOX, #10
那些古怪而又讓人憂心的問題合集十Q. What is the probability that if I am stabbed by a knife in my torso that it won't hit anything vital and I'll live?
Q．如果我被人用刀刺中軀幹，有多大的機率刀沒有刺到任何重要器官並且我能活下來？——Thomas
——托馬斯Q. If I were on a motorbike and do a jump off a quarter pipe ramp, how fast would I need to be moving to safely deploy and land using the parachute?
Q．如果我在一輛摩托車上，在駛上四分之一圓弧坡道時跳離摩托車，那麼那一剎那我的速度需要有多快才能安全離開摩托車，並且用降落傘安全着地？——Anonymous
——匿名提問者Q. What if every day, every human had a 1 percent chance of being turned into a turkey, and every turkey had a 1 percent chance of being turned into a human?
Q．如果每天每個人有1％的機率變成火雞，而每隻火雞有1％的機率變成人類會發生什麼？——Kenneth
——肯尼思
