(In reply to
re: Interesting Idea: by Penny)
In my list of more common words, 412 fit this pattern, with 383 unique sets of 4 letters to match the 4 digits. As there are 358,800 ways of choosing 4 different letters, we'd expect the chance of a given set matching at least one word being 383/358,800, or 1 in 937. With 26 tries we'd expect 1 chance in 36 of having one hit (more than one hit would have negligible chance). The chances would be better still, if the letters chosen are more common letters.
Then, if one is searching for patterns, a 1 in 36 chance of some sort is probable to happen if one is considering various sorts of patterns to look for.
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Posted by Charlie
on 2004-02-16 10:08:25 |