Her first was born on Aug, 8, 2008, her second on Sept. 9, 2009 and her most recent on Oct. 10, 2010.
Yes, that's 8-8-08, 9-9-09 and 10-10-10.
While the dates might seem "incredibly rare," they're really not. Such a lineup can only happen in the first 12 years of the century and at least 10 months apart, says Shannon McWeeney, a professor of biostatistics at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.
"Given that the first birth occurred in that window, the probability is not as astronomical as you might be compelled to think," she says.In fact, it's not that high a number at all, says Philip Stark, a professor of statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. "The 'chance' you get depends on the assumptions you make," he says. One set of assumptions gives a chance of about 1 in 50 million. More realistic assumptions — including allowing at least 11 months between births — increases it to about 1 in 2,500. Since thousands of women in the United States had kids in 2008, 2009 and 2010, this suddenly seems a little less extraordinary. But humans "like to look for patterns, to make sense of things" he says.For the Sopers, three is simply their lucky number — "we don't have any more planned," says Barbara.
Source:
Her first was born on Aug, 8, 2008 ... 8 Aug. 2008 ---> 080808
her second on Sept. 9, 2009 and ...... 9 Sept. 2009 --> 090909
her most recent on Oct. 10, 2010...... 10 Oct. 2010 --> 101010
or we write:
08082008, 09092009 and 10102010
The factors of 8082008 are: 1 2 4 8 11 22 44 88 91841 183682 367364 734728 1010251 2020502 4041004 8082008
The prime factors are: 2 x 2 x 2 x 11 x 91841
The factors of 9092009 are: 1 47 193447 9092009
The prime factors are: 47 x 193447
The factors of 10102010 are: 1 2 5 10 1010201 2020402 5051005 10102010
The prime factors are: 2 x 5 x 1010201
[to be continued]
Something to check out: My hypothesis is that there're probably more Chinese [induced?] babies born on Aug 8, 2008 than on any other dates that year, as the number 8 is considered an "auspicious" number among superstitious Asians. Statistically yours
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