What are the odds that a friend and I attend the same 2 red sox games in 1 season without prior plans?

Question

Fenway Park is an extremely difficult park to get tickets to. My friend and I have already been to the same game this year and didnt know we were there at the same time. Now we're both going again, on the same day, and neither of us knew before we got the tickets. These are the only two games either of us will be attending this year. What are the odds? Fenway Park has 38,805 seats and 81 home games this season. Someone out there has got to be able to calculate this randomness. Thanks for all your help

Answer 1

There are 81C2 ways for you to pick which games to go to; the same goes for your friend. So there are a total of (81C2)^2 outcomes. 81C2 of those are favorable; they are the ones where you and your friends choose the same games. Thus, the probability that you both go to the same game is 2/(81*80)=1/(81*40)=1/3240.

Answer 2

Assuming you both picked randomly which day to attend.
The odds of you picking the same day as your friend is 2/81*1/80 = 0.000308641975 = 0.03%
Since for your first choice you had two days out of 81 that would match, and your second choice you had 1 day out of 80

The odds change if you take into account other factors. If you both can only go to see weekend games that makes the odds a lot better as does if you both have school at the same time and can't go to a lot of the same games. Also since tickets are hard to get for most games you would have a better chance of both being there at one game if tickets were less popular for that particular game.

Answer 3

lets first look at the odds of the two of you being at the same 1 game.

you can be at any of 1/81 games. so can your friend. so the odds of the two of you being at the same game are 1/81 * 1/81

now in the case of two games,

you can be at two games 1/81 * 1/80. so can he.

so it would be 1/81 * 1/80 * 1/81 * 1/80

Answer 4

i think you can ignore the number of seats since it is not given how many are occupied.

ok then 81 games.

the odds that you both chose the same game is 1/81 , because one of you two choose any game, next for the other only 1 good game can be choosen.

Answer 5

Assuming no factors to skew the odds (for example, maybe you both only attend day games, or you only go when your favorite player is pitching, or you only go on Cheap Beer Night, or something like that), Bictor has the correct answer. Personally, though, I think your friend is stalking you. :)