amusedTHIRTEEN AT DINNER
Some one in France has taken the trouble to compute the statistical probability of the supposition that if "thirteen sit down to table" one of them will die within the following year. From this computation it appears that if the average age of the company is 10 years there ought to be 134 persons present instead of 13 to make death probable; that if the average age is 15 there ought to be 131 present; and the following figures follow as a mathematical sequence: for 20 years, 129 persons; for 25 years, 124 persons; for 30 years, 119 persons; for 35 years, 112 persons; for 40 years, 103 persons; for 45 years, 90 persons; for 50 years, 73 persons; for 55 years, 54 persons; for 60 years, 35 persons; for 65 years, 25 persons; for 70 years, 17 persons; for 72 1/2 years for the average age, there would be a probability that one of the "13 at a table" would die within a year.
---Anonymous, Miscellaneous Notes & Queries, 1885
Barnett Cocks (1907-89)
