《那些古怪又让人忧心的问题》第107期:随机祝福电话(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.”
最后，我们不妨假设在这篇文章发布的当天，有5位读者决定实践一下。如果他们24小时没日没夜地不停打电话，那么有三万分之一的几率他们打给的那人正在通话中——因为那人也在给别人打相同的祝福电话。And there's about a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000 chance that two of them will simultaneously call each other.
而有十万万亿分之一的几率在同一时刻这两个无聊鬼正好互相打给对方。
At this point, probability will give up, and they'll both be struck by lightning.
此时此刻，老天爷看不下去了，于是一道闪电把他们都劈死了。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． 基于美国平均十万分之四的谋杀率计算，这个比例在发达国家中算是高的了。2 Citation: You are alive.
2． 引用：你还活着。3 For context, that's 490 repetitions of the song “Hey Jude.”
3． 这个长度相当于Hey Jude重复播放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． 在整个58小时的试验期间，4个喷嚏是最有意思的实验数据。我宁愿听490遍Hey Jude也不想做这个实验。WEIRD (AND WORRYING) QUESTIONS FROM THE WHAT IF? INBOX, #10
那些古怪而又让人忧心的问题合集十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躯干，有多大的几率刀没有刺到任何重要器官并且我能活下来？——Thomas
——托马斯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．如果我在一辆摩托车上，在驶上四分之一圆弧坡道时跳离摩托车，那么那一刹那我的速度需要有多快才能安全离开摩托车，并且用降落伞安全着地？——Anonymous
——匿名提问者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．如果每天每个人有1％的几率变成火鸡，而每只火鸡有1％的几率变成人类会发生什么？——Kenneth
——肯尼思
