A coincidence that bothers me

[Stu Pidasso]

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The likelihood of your ratio, given your loose standards, is at least 1/50. The likelihood of the lottery example is at most 1/1,000,000. So the situations are not analogous.

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I don't think my standards are so loose. Here is how NASA describes the coincidence

"Earth is the only planet in the solar system with spectacular solar eclipses. Thanks to an apparently improbable coincidence, the Sun and the Moon are almost exactly the same size as seen from Earth. The Sun is 400 times larger than the Moon, but it is also 400 times farther away" - bolded added for emphasis
Source

ZeeJustin said [ QUOTE ]
Using wikipedia numbers I get that the sun is 389.17 times as far away as the moon

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This number is useless because the distance the moon is from the sun constantly changes as the moon and the earth trace thru thier orbits. The only number that is relevant is the distance of the moon from the sun during the exact moment of a total solar eclipse.

Stu