So, I misspoke in class about the birthday problem. The probability that gets so large so quickly is that there will be ANY two people in the group with the same birthday. NOT that Atira (for example) will find someone in a group that shares her birthday.
That's a pretty big difference and I didn't mean to misrepresent it. Giant OOPS! Sorry! Here's the gist of it, followed by the reference:
In probability theory, the birthday problem or birthday paradox[1] concerns the probability that, in a set of n randomlychosen people, some pair of them will have the same birthday. By the pigeonhole principle, the probability reaches 100% when the number of people reaches 367 (since there are 366 possible birthdays, including February 29). However, 99.9% probability is reached with just 70 people, and 50% probability with 23 people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem
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