Math with Bad DrawingsCartoon Archive

Sacred Spaghetti

June 17, 2019

A believer claims a plate of spaghetti is miraculous because its exact arrangement was improbable, though any arrangement would be.

Content note: Religious satire (divine intervention).

Use this cartoon

Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.

Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2019-06-17-sacred-spaghetti/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Transcript

A: "Witness the Sacred Spaghetti! Proof of divine intervention in culinary affairs!" B: "Am I supposed to see a face? Just looks like noodles to me." A: "Yes – an arrangement of noodles whose odds of forming by chance are less than one in a quintillion!"

Topics
Probability › Basic ProbabilityProbability › Improbable EventsLogic & Proof › FallaciesNumber & Arithmetic › Large Numbers
Level
High SchoolAP Statistics
Themes
FoodPuzzles & Problems