The document discusses the probability of being struck by lightning in the United States in one year. It states that about 100 people die from lightning strikes annually out of a US population of around 304 million people. Using the Poisson formula and probability calculations, it determines the chance of an individual being struck in a given year is about 0.00000033, or very small. It also calculates the low probability of exactly 50 people being struck by lightning in 2008. In the end, it concludes that the chances of being struck by lightning are very small and a person is pretty safe.

1. By Tomas Chlebecek

2. The Facts: Worldwide, there are about 100 lightning bolts happening every second. In the U.S.A., about 100 people die every year from lightning strikes!

3. The Question: What is the probability that you will get struck by a bolt of lightning in the United States in One year? We need to use the Poisson Formula…. P(x) = u x e -u x! u= 2.71828 x= The exact number of occurrences in an interval.

4. Initial Steps: 1 st we need to find out how many people are in the U.S.A… The answer is ~ 304,037,060 people! Since 100 People die a year we need to move the decimal place over twice. Making the chance for one person 1out of 3,040,370.60 or simplified…. 0.00000033

5. What are the chances that in the year 2008, exactly 50 people will be struck by lightning ? In Microsoft Excel find the Poisson Function and type in the Formula… =Poisson(50,100,False) The answer given is, 1.22314 E - 08 Simplified it is, 0.0000000122 There is a 0.0000000122 chance that 50 people will be struck by lightning in the year 2008!!!

6. Basically………… YOUR PRETTY MUCH SAFE!!!