The Birthday Paradox, sports, and facebook friends!

Link: http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/statistics/report-112162.html

This article talks about the statistic phenomenon on the pitch, how there are often two players with the same birthday at the World Cup.

"The German defender Philipp Lahm and the Portuguese midfield star Maniche were both born on 11. November – and they were both playing in the game for the third place at the World Cup 2006."

"...in more than half of the games at the World Cup 2006 at least two persons on the field had the same birthday."

"Most of the children are born at the end of summer or at the beginning of spring. An the fewest in December and February”. This can at least be applied to Europe – and with 14 teams most of the teams at the World Cup came from Europe. It therefore has to be seen whether the birthday paradox will appear during more than 53 percent of all games of the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland."

The article continues to explain the validation of the Birthday Pradox in the sports world, with other examples as well.

Also, with the rise of websites like Facebook, it is extremely easy to see the birthday paradox. If you’re logged into your facebook, this link (https://www.facebook.com/events.php?bday=1) should take you to a list of your friend’s birthdays. For example, if you've got 113 Facebook friends, it means there is a 99.9999996% chance at least two of them share a birthday!