52 Photos That Show Things That Weren’t Supposed To Happen, According To The Odds (New Pics)

Just because something is improbable doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. We’ve seen people defy the odds countless times, whether it’s winning as an underdog or making a discovery that no one thought was possible. In fact, you’ve probably experienced some improbable things yourself. According to David J. Hall, author of The Improbability Principle, unlikely things occur every single day.

Hall even makes the claim that “extremely improbable events are commonplace.” He also points out that most people’s “intuitive grasp of probability isn’t very good.” So most of us tend to be shocked and impressed by coincidences or unlikely occurrences that actually shouldn’t surprise us at all.

Do you believe in coincidences? People love to debate whether they exist or not, but Paul Brooks at The Guardian says that we often use this label to explain things that we can’t otherwise account for. He provides the example of a dream he had where his mother’s best friend (Rose) appeared to inform him that she had suffered a stroke and passed away.

Then, two weeks later, he found a letter from Rose’s daughter addressed to his mother informing them that Rose had actually passed away. One explanation for his dream is that the spirit of Rose came to him supernaturally and shared this information with him. The other, simpler explanation is that it was all just a coincidence.  

We often love experiencing what we believe are coincidences because they just feel so unlikely. What are the chances that you met a waiter from your hometown while eating dinner at a restaurant on a random island 6,000 miles away? And what are the chances that your absolute favorite song came on the radio only minutes after you were telling your date how special it is to you? Deciding that an improbable encounter is a coincidence is much easier than trying to get to the bottom of a phenomenon.

The fact that improbable things happen every single day can either motivate you or terrify you. On one hand, you might feel more excited about the idea of competing on a game show or buying a lottery ticket, because you know that someone has to win. On the other hand, knowing that statistically some people will get into a car accident today or be diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow can leave you catatonic. We have to be able to accept that random occurrences are happening constantly. Sometimes we’ll be lucky, and other times we won’t. 

Now, we can’t always improve our luck. Some days are just doomed from the moment you wake up in the morning. But if you want to improve your chances of being successful when buying scratch-off tickets, Statistics How To has some tips. First, they note that it’s not all about random luck. In fact, statistician Joan Ginther has won multimillion-dollar payouts four times from scratch-offs. So some strategies can definitely help you out.    

One of the biggest tips Statistics How To provides is buying your lottery tickets in bulk. Obviously, this is going to force you to spend more up front. But when printing cards, the company is required to make a certain percentage of them winners. For example, 250 out of every 1,000 printed might have a cash prize. So if you buy 10 of the same type of card, you’ll increase your odds of at least one of them being a winner.