Debunking a Long-Lasting Star Trek Theory
Mathematician James Grime has debunked a very popular Star Trek theory by using fairly simple math. The widely held belief that “redshirts” (those who work in engineering or security) die more often than any other character isn’t true, Grime says. While technically 10 gold-shirted, eight blue, and 25 red-shirted die in the series, that calculation ignores the fact that there are more redshirts than anybody else—so probability needs to come into the equation. “Out of 239 redshirts, 25 died, which is 10 percent. Out of 55 goldshirts, 10 died, which is 18 percent,” so it’s actually more likely to cop it if you’re wearing gold. Find out more at Space.
Via space.com link opens in a new window
