Question for the mathematically inclined

[plural]

Statistically the
frequency of occurrence of
Twins (either fraternal or identical)
being born to one set of parents
by volume of total children conceived

or
in other words

if I wanted to have
39 children
statistically speaking
how many sets of twins
would I be likely to have?

Comments

remember, I'm on cold medicine

[kansaschica.livejournal.com]

My grandfather's mother had 11 children. 6 of those were twin-sets.

I know that's way higher than average. And I don't know of any other twins in my family's geneology.

So, while that can offset the 1 set in 39 kids theory, I also knew in school, there'd be (at any given time) about 5 sets of twins in my class (meaning all the same grade year, not one single class of 30 students). My graduating class, so give or take, it was still about this, was 739.

So, using those odds... divide 700 (to round down, since this isn't exact science) by 2.

350. 5 of every 350 were twins, or 1 out of every 70.

Sooooo... given all the differences in genetics, bladda bladda...

I think if you have 39 kids, you'll probably have 3 sets of twins, or 2 sets of triplets.

thought process is courtesty of generic brand cough and cold syrup that's running through my brain. So don't pick me apart. I'm likely to cry or go into a coughing fit right now.