Why do people say you have a better chance of being struck by lightening than attacked by a shark?

Question

what the hell is wrong with those idiots. all you have to do to get attacked by a shark is going to places where they're notorious for attacking people like south africa and do everything experts tell you not to do like wearing bright bathing suits,sparkly jewlery,having an open cut which is putting blood in the water,and have some dead fish or shark prey some where on your body. getting struck by lightening hardly happens to anyone they're definatley not as often as how many shark attacks happen every year. which one do you think has the greater risk? and why do you think people say this nonsense?

but who's going to be outside in a huge thunderstorm that's knocking out power lines

te144 ur answer really made me laugh but still there are really idiots out there who don't know the risks and will wear sparkly jewlery,bright bathing suits, etc...

also heres another fact a lot of people especially when fishing get attacked by furocious sharks such as great whites,bull sharks,tiger sharks, etc.. while standing in 3-feet of water

check this out and you'll see what i mean
http://dsc.discovery.com/video/?playerId=203711706&categoryId=1166694732&lineupId=1127682410&titleId=1080170064

Answer 1

Statistics. With you as the wardrobe director, the statistics might be turned around, but until then, there evidently are more idiots on golf courses, yards, on lakes, rivers and oceans in boats, athletes playing on wide open fields, homeowners electrocuted, killed by trees and wires., whilst in your example, a huge gaggle of goofy geese gotta get dolled up in bright suits and sparkly jewelry and wade out in the water going pssst, pssst ,pssst here, sharky. Ummm... Yours does sound like more fun. Okay, deal.

Answer 2

On the face of it,your reaction seems justified.However if we take the whole population of the world and it's percentage of people who are likely to be struck by lightening or an attack by a shark,the theory of probability would tell us that it's more likely to be lightening, Apparently,one gets the impression that we are safer from sharks than from lightening but that's only part of the situation, which doesn't stand to the scrutiny of reality.One way is to say that all humans standing in the pen are prone to be struck by lightening ,a number much larger than the number of people who at any time would be in the sea and that too in the vicinity of sharks.But ask the people who are in the sea with the sharks around and the statement sounds absurd.Still,why people still say so?Just to encourage people or calm their nerves

Answer 3

i think they shouldn't compare the two because u can only get attacked by a shark if u are in water. u can get struck by lightening simply by just being outside no matter where u are