Birthday And Family Income

2136 Words5 Pages

Marquez, Joanne
Period 3
What is the relationship between birthday and family income and how well does mathematical statistics translate into real life scenarios?
The world's population, as of November 2013, is calculated at 7,191,807,376. The global birth rate is estimated at 20.05 births for every 1,000 person. The global death rate totals to approximately 8.67 deaths for every 1,000 person. Certain factors play into the role of an individual's potential birth, assuming that no abnormalities occur and there is the standard nine month period from conception to birth. Parents that have certain professions, as a teacher, for example, may time their child's birth to summer months for convenience. The birthday paradox is a known equation that calculates the probability of, out of a given group of people, two people having been born in the same month and date. The task of this investigation is to extend the study of the birthday paradox, factoring in their family income. The type of data that will be collected is the individual's birthday, excluding the year, and family income. The sample group will be selected from a random group including those of similar age group to my own (students from the school). By including only those that are in my age group, I am eliminating further variables. Major difference in conception years may cause the data to skew. Data will be viewed in the form of a scatter plot to observe whether a correlation is present in the information. Furthermore, I will be comparing the statistics in real life situations with the data gathered and those that are generated through mathematical means, as will be proven later.

The Birthday Paradox
The Birthday Paradox investigates the probability that, in a group of X p...

... middle of paper ...

...ch as an individual's culture and race also have an effect on the child's birthday. Because this was not properly taken into consideration and was not registered as a probable factor, skewed data may not be accounted for.
Conclusion
Despite the aforementioned limitations, this investigation showed that there is no visible correlation between a family's income range and a child's birthday, despite my original hypothesis. Furthermore, the investigation clearly shows that mathematical calculations are applicable in real life situations, and can be used to answer such questions as the birthday paradox. Chart 3, for example, can be further tested in a real situation, gather 50 individuals and testing for similar birthday. From the mathematical results, it can be assumed that finding in the real life situations will be similar to that of the staged mathematical situation.

Open Document