what are the odds

i would like to give a shout-out to my alma mater, for playing a great game of basketball on friday. they totally could have won - and i'm a little nervous that i put oregon in my final four, after beating a 14 seed by only 2 points.

after watching lots of games all weekend, and checking my bracket semi-neurotically, i began to wonder, "what are the odds of picking the perfect bracket?" so i did some research.

this article was a good place to start. it's from '06, but the math stands true since the tournament holds the same number of teams. if every game is a toss-up, you have a one in 9 million trillion chance of picking every win correctly. that's 9,000,000,000,000,000,000, or as webwire calls it, 9 quintillion. one article said you are more likely to get struck by lightning while watching one of the games than you are to pick a perfect bracket. now that's funny.

just minutes into my research, i came across some surprising news. on friday, the three contestants on jeopardy tied. that's right, a three-way tie in final jeopardy. apparently mathematicians say the odds of this happening are one in 25 million. better odds than the ncaa tourney, but still, that's crazy.

now i'm interested. the odds of something or other happening is just simple math, but it takes the time of finding the numbers and calculating them. so i've compiled a few fun odds for you to enjoy....

Odds of...
...getting hemorrhoids: 25 to 1 (apparently they are fairly common)
...being on plane with a drunken pilot: 117 to 1 (um...scary)
...being audited by the IRS: 175 to 1
...getting a royal flush in poker on first five cards dealt: 649,740 to 1
...becoming a saint: 20,000,000 to 1
...a meteor landing on your house: 182,138,880,000,000 to 1 (that's a relief)
...catching a ball at a major league ballgame: 563 to 1
...striking it rich on Antiques Roadshow: 60,000 to 1 (i love that show)
...injury from shaving: 6,585 to 1

and my personal favorite...

Odds of dying from contact with hot tap water: 5,005,564 to 1 (how can you die from contact with hot tap water?)