Chapter 2 - Probability and Coincidence Summary and Analysis

Paulos starts off with a story about a man who was afraid of being on a plane with someone who had a bomb in his luggage. Although the man realized that such a thing was quite unlikely, the probability was still too high for his comfort. Therefore, the man began carrying a bomb in his briefcase since the chance of there being two bombs on board a plane was infinitesimal.

Sigmund Freud, the great psychoanalyst, once said that there was no such thing as coincidence. Carl Jung, a giant in psychiatry and analytical psychology, was fond of the topic of synchronicity. People seem to be obsessed by coincidence, synchronicity, and irony. Paulos states that despite what people choose to call these occurrences, the events are actually not as uncommon as people may think...