Talk:2009-04-24 48 11

Flippin' weird: Is it just me, or is Mammendorf is just as preferred by the random (?) Geohash algorithm as the surroundings of Munich's airport? 2008-07-23 48 11 2009-04-03 48 11 Map of 2009-04-23 Map of 2009-04-23 --Zb 20:07, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I believe noone has exactly examined that yet, but basically those repetitions seem to be an application of the Birthday Paradox. In our latitudes, the chance is about 3.8%, i.e. once in four weeks in average, that two consecutive coordinates are within of 10 km of another.

If I haven't calculated total crap (my stochastical knowledge is extremly rusty, there is hardly any iron left), the theoretical chance that within of a given week (i.e. one calendar week) two arbitrary hashes fall within of ten km of another is about 59% in a latitude 48 graticule. That means, such an event is all but uncommon.--Ekorren 22:11, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I was guessing towards something like this as well. Just last week, I thought about it when I was looking at the stack of trays in the cafeteria at work. They have white and orange trays, and the stacks are far from an evenly distributed mix of white and red trays. Every 20 or so trays, you see about five trays of the same color in a row. What looks like an unlikely coincidence at first is actually very likely... I think it's just human nature to always search for coincidences and think 'wow' whenever we think we've figured out one of these seemingly 'rare' things...--Zb 03:59, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

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  A C64 screenshot says more than 1000 words.

Simulated stack of trays in the cafeteria at my company, colors adapted for better readability on the screen. Note how often there are 4 trays of the same color in a row, in a sample of only 24.--Zb 21:42, 24 April 2009 (UTC)