"What are the odds that, at the precise moment that a portion of the ceiling fell in, one of us would just happen to be underneath that exact portion? They've got to be astronomical."
Oh, I don't know about that.
Let's make up some numbers. You have 2000 square feet of potential ceiling collapsing. It looked like about 10 square feet collapsed. There are four of you, and you're all in your house 1/2 of the time.
So that's 2000/10/4*2 = 100. One in 100. Feel free to plug in your own numbers -- and I completely ignored the complication of two people standing in the same spot -- for a more accurate answer, but it wont be astronomical.
What makes the whole event very very improbable is how often a chunk of ceiling falls down, which happens approximately never.
That being said, of course the whole idea is terrifying.
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Date: 2010-05-27 03:09 am (UTC)Oh, I don't know about that.
Let's make up some numbers. You have 2000 square feet of potential ceiling collapsing. It looked like about 10 square feet collapsed. There are four of you, and you're all in your house 1/2 of the time.
So that's 2000/10/4*2 = 100. One in 100. Feel free to plug in your own numbers -- and I completely ignored the complication of two people standing in the same spot -- for a more accurate answer, but it wont be astronomical.
What makes the whole event very very improbable is how often a chunk of ceiling falls down, which happens approximately never.
That being said, of course the whole idea is terrifying.
Be well.
B