Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, long and restful Thanksgiving Weekend! There was some excitement in my family as my fifth grandchild was born on Thanksgiving Day. Interestingly enough, this was the third grandchild out of the five born on Thanksgiving Day itself. They were all born in different years but all on Thanksgiving Day of that year. I have told my children the individual birthdays are now irrelevant. All three now have an official birthday, like the Queen of England does.

How unlikely is this scenario? I teach Decision Analysis at Moravian University and have acquainted my students with the mathematics of combinatorics. Check out this amusing little video made by David Knuftke for Ted-Ed called the Birthday Problem. it describes the use of combinatorics in calculating a similar but somewhat different problem.

PS. You can calculate the odds of three people being born on the same day by watching this video. Enjoy!

Published by Mark Koscinski

I am an assistant professor of accounting practice at Moravian University in Bethlehem PA, after a long and multifaceted business career. I am a CPA in the State of New Jersey, and hold a doctorate from Drew University in Madison NJ. I also served as a Byzantine Catholic deacon, hence the religious articles included here. Moravian University is a liberal arts college, encouraging the complete formation of a person.

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