[TheForge] OT - Innumeracy and a falling satellite

[Bruce Freeman]

So they're telling us that that satellite that's falling to earth has
only a 1/3200 chance of hitting a person.

But what does that mean?  Is that the chance of hitting ANY  person or
the chance of hitting any particular person?

There's quite a difference.  Google tells me that there ar now about
6.75 billion people on earth, so if the latter interpretation is
correct, we can expect 211 million people to be hit by space debris
sometime this week.

It sure would be nice if these news articles were written by folks who
were not innumerate.

-- 
Bruce
NJ