Sunday, June 23, 2013

Five Leaf Clovers??

As a child I only found one four leaf clover, and yes, I worked hard trying to find one.  A few days ago my children come in with a handful of four leaf clovers and 2 five leaf clovers. I've checked on-line and they are actually clovers. But, then, after other research I have found that other people have been able to find hundreds of 4 leaf clovers or more. I found one record from 2008 and someone had found  a 22 leaf clover. (information from http://voices.yahoo.com/25-four-leaf-clovers-facts-may-not-know-6254310.html?cat=32)
At first I was amazed at their discovery. After my research, not so amazed anymore. Although (http://blog.minitab.com/blog/real-world-quality-improvement/the-odds-of-finding-a-four-leaf-clover) says that the odds of finding a four leaf clover is 10,000 to 1 and the odds of finding a 5 leaf clover are 1,000,000 to one. The article does state this is on your first try. The kids weren't looking for clovers, they just happen to come across them while outside playing. So, it's anyone guess as to how rare or not rare these clovers are. I've attached a pic of one of the 5 leaf clovers found.

While researching, I also heard "The Manhattan Project" mentioned several times. If you are unfamiliar with this movie a genius kid finds a handful of 5 leaf clovers near a plant nearby that no one knows what's going on inside. He deduces that nuclear work going on to produce such a mutation of clovers. The plot line suggests that this is statistically impossible. No, we don't live near a nuclear power plant. Nearest one is about 30 miles from us.

I"m dumbfounded by the whole thing. But, I thought you might be interested in what we experienced.

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