Name: Anonymous 2006-03-14 15:10
How can the study of chance and probability ever be meaningful when so many unknown and completely random factors occur? So many unnacounted for events can occur that can never be predicted by statistics, especially in relation to individuals and individual events that do not fit any sort of generalization or statistic.
For example, this TV program asked some engineering students to build a giant web that would catch a plastic fly when launched from a trebuchet. When it actually launched, the strands of the web were clearly too weak to catch it on impact, but it happened to catch on a supporting strand and dangle above the ground. The calculations were for any part of the web to withstand the impact, yet they were saved by a "lucky" event when the fly could have easily fell to the ground.
For example, this TV program asked some engineering students to build a giant web that would catch a plastic fly when launched from a trebuchet. When it actually launched, the strands of the web were clearly too weak to catch it on impact, but it happened to catch on a supporting strand and dangle above the ground. The calculations were for any part of the web to withstand the impact, yet they were saved by a "lucky" event when the fly could have easily fell to the ground.