Now I know some, hopefully not many, A-List members object to my technical correctness. I'm sorry, but it's an addiction!

It's because I'm a technocrat... a person, who, upon learning that 4,342,615 people were married last year, says... "Why isn't the number even?"

Regards,
Phil Corso, PE
(Boca Raton, F)
[[email protected]]
{[email protected]}

 

Maybe some of them divorced and remarried in the same year, i.e. the ones that remarried were not counted the second time, their new partners however, were.

 

> Phil Corso, PE
> a person, who, upon learning that 4,342,615 people were married last year, says... "Why isn't the number even?"

Unfortunately, it is completely possible for one person to be married twice in one in year to two different spouses. This gives you an odd number.

My question is how can the count possibly be accurate to the ones place? It is impossible to believe that the count is exact, even within thousands. Not every little county clerks office is going to report accurrately... and I bet they are ten times more accurate than the overwhelming beauracracies of New York City, Chicago, etc.

I think this is relevant, actually. Consider what Richard Feynman was told while he investigated the Challenger accident. NASA's formal statistic for catastrophic failure was 1 in 6 million. That implies they were expecting to launch 3 shuttle missions a day for SIX THOUSAND YEARS without ever losing one.

Everyone ought to think about the numbers they are told, and make sure they make sense.

-James Ingraham
Sage Automation, Inc.

 

Well, Phil, I wasn't paying special attention to your technical correctness. On this list, I expect that it is those that are technically _incorrect_ that stand out.

As for the 4,342,615 people married last year, I suspect there must be _odd_ number of bigamists.

Anthony Kerstens P.Eng.

 

James, it was a joke!!

Regards,
Phil Corso, PE
(Boca Raton, FL)
[[email protected]]
{[email protected]}

 

Hi All

To be technically correct, the reason why the number is not even is that when it is divided by two, it will result in a remainder.......

Regards
Donald Pittendrigh

 

Many cultures/religions permit multiple marriages. Many have more than one spouse.

Jonas Berge
==================
[email protected]
www.smar.com

 

I think we all knew it was a joke. But James brings out a much larger issue. One that is an irritation to me as well. He is illustrating the absurdity of such numbers and the fact that you hear them every day on the morning and evening news shows. What continues to amaze me is how many people, including our friends in Washington, actually continue to believe such nonsense and make important decisions based on them.

But please don't start a whole round of emails on politics.

Regards
Erich Mertz
[email protected]

 

Responding to Donald Pittendrigh's reply:

Finally, someone with a sense of humor!

Regards, Phil Corso, PE (Boca Raton, FL) [[email protected]] {[email protected]}