Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!ogicse!intelhf!reed!buckley
From: buckley@reed.UUCP (Ken Buckley)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Can unrelated twins exist?
Summary: I don't know. Do you?
Message-ID: <15227@reed.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jul 90 06:10:50 GMT
Reply-To: buckley@reed.UUCP (Ken Buckley)
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
Lines: 11

I have a question for the numerically-minded geneticists out there. What I
would like to know is how large the human population would have to be for
there to be a statistically significant chance that visually indistinguishable
"twins" exist. Naturally I don't care about minor differences in internal
organs or tiny details like number of hairs; just another unrelated person
who at a pretty close examination looks just like me. Of course the answer
is huge but I can't imagine it's *too* much more than 5x10^9 -- e.g. the man
in NY who looks just like the Zodiac killer. Is around 10^18 high enough?
Please respond by email -- I'll summarize if interest seems to warrant. Thanx.

Ken Buckley, buckley@reed.UUCP