Thursday, October 9, 2008

The Odds of Peanut Butter M&Ms

Yesterday, something phenomenal happened.

Nina and I go to CVS every day almost to have a short 15 minute break from CP craziness. On this most recent trip, I bought a small pack of peanut butter M&Ms. (You know, the ones in the red/orange bag.) I ate them at my computer, and when I neared the end, I poured the remaining candies into my hand. Lo and behold-- there were six M&Ms left-- one of each color.

Now, if you are good at math, please correct me here if I am wrong. I believe the odds of that happening are 1 in 720.

Some may call this luck. Some may call it chance. Some may call it happenstance. Some may call it destiny (to what point, I ask?). I choose "luck," because I don't consider myself lucky and I don't believe in luck. So why not call it that? I don't win anything in random drawings, but maybe that's because I always win in competitions. (Just kidding; I wish!) Two point five years ago I won 2 tickets to see Live8 in London. (Concert tickets, not plane + concert tickets-- I was already there.)

1 in 720 is not impossible (obviously), and is better than a lot of lottery odds. But I just thought it was kinda cool. One red, one orange, one yellow, one green, one blue, and one brown. It was a very aesthetically, mathematically, and taste-ily satisfying event.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

you make me smile, Janel! :)

and crave some peanut butter m & m's :)