this probability situation – If a couple of people decide to travel on separate airliners instead of traveling together, have they halved their chances of dying in a plane crash, or doubled them?
In: 3
**the chance of both dying is lower if they take the same plane.** Here is the math. Assume each plane has a 25% chance of crashing (so chance of alive is 75%)
**outcomes**: assuming the two planes have [no influence on each other](https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/probability-events-independent.html). We have two people, Abe and Bob. Keeping the probabilities simple.
* **Abe & Bob in same plane** = 25% for both since the chance is the same in either plane.
* **Abe in plane 1 & bob in plane 2**: we now have two events, one for each plane.
* Abe dead bob alive: 0.25 x 0.75 = 18.75%
* Abe alive bob dead: 0.75 x 0.25 = 18.75%
* Abe alive bob alive: 0.75 x 0.75 = 56.25%
* **Abe dea bob dead (your question)**: 0.25 x 0.25 = 6.25%.
I used 25% so you can do it in your head. The same applies to the [tiny probabilities](https://flyfright.com/statistics/) in reality too, just the math is messier.
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