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-rw-r--r--content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md24
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 14 deletions
diff --git a/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md
index df1abd6..0b6c1af 100644
--- a/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md
+++ b/content/posts/2021-11-11-the-birthday-paradox.md
@@ -4,26 +4,22 @@ title: "The Birthday Paradox"
date: "2021-11-11T06:46:00-04:00"
draft: true
---
-> How many people have to be in a room before the probability that two
-> or more people in the room share a birthday is greater than 50%?
+> How many people have to be in a room before the probability that there
+> is a shared birthday is greater than 50%?
This is called the [Birthday Problem][bp], and the solution is known as
-the *birthday paradox*. It is a fun puzzle because:
+the *birthday paradox*. It is an interesting problem because the answer
+is counterintuitive (hence the name *birthday paradox*) and because the
+ramifications affect security, particularly [cryptographic hash
+algorithms][hash].
-* The answer is counterintuitive (hence the name *birthday paradox*).
-* The solution relies on elements of [combinatorics][], [set theory][],
- and [probability][].
-* The implications affect security, particularly [cryptographic
- hash algorithms][hash].
+The explanation was a bit long for a blog post, so I moved it
+to a full article which you can read at the following URL:
-The explanation started as a blog post but got too long, so I moved it
-to a full article instead. You can read the full article at the
-following link:
-
-[The Birthday Problem][bp]
+[The Birthday Paradox][bp]
[bp]: {{< relref "/content/articles/the-birthday-paradox.md" >}}
- "The birthday problem."
+ "The birthday Paradox"
[combinatorics]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinatorics
"The mathematics of counting."
[set theory]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory