Can We Help Same birthday whats the chance video

SUBJECTS:  Maths

YEARS:  5–6

Mathematician Adam Spencer answers a question about something called the 'birthday paradox'.

Find out what this has to do with birthdays and the number of people in a room.

Things to think about

1. 1.Do you know anyone who shares your birthday? What's the likelihood that in a group of 30 people, two people share the same birthday — unlikely, more likely than not, or highly likely?
2. 2.Listen as Adam Spencer describes the birthday paradox. What does this term mean? What is the smallest group of people in which two people are likely to share the same birthday? How does Adam describe the likelihood of this happening?
3. 3.Pick out a random group of friends or family; the bigger the group is, the better. Make a note of everyone's birthday. An adult with access to birthday reminders on social media might be able to help you. In the group you selected, do any people share a birthday? How big is the group? Does the birthday paradox appear to be true?
4. 4.Check out birthdays in your class. What about birthdays in other classes in the school? Does the birthday paradox seem to work?

Date of broadcast: 14 Mar 2008

Copyright

^{Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).}