Quoto

Learn / Library / Probability

Shared birthday of a pair

ProbabilityEasy

Each of people has a birthday that is uniform over days, independent of the other (ignore leap days). What is the probability that they share the same birthday?

Checking an answer needs JavaScript. The hint and the solution open without it.

A whole number, a decimal, a fraction like 3/8 or a percent.

Hint

Fix the first person's birthday and ask how likely the second is to hit it.

Solution
  1. Fix the birthday of the first person; it can be any day.
  2. The second person's birthday is uniform over days, so exactly one of these days matches.
  3. Hence the probability of a match is .
  4. The answer is .

Answer: