In a magazine recently there was a discussion about probability.

The author asserted that the probability of the event in question was approximately

(1 - 10^-21)¹⁰²⁵

How small is this number?

Start inside para's.  Let 10^-21 = (1/(10^21)) = x, some very small real number.  So, (1-x) = some number slightly smaller than 1; call that y.  The limit of y^10^20 as y approaches 1 is 1.  Thus, this number is not very small as probabilities go.

Posted by Seth on 2006-08-19 01:30:42