[thegeomaster]

This reminds me of a (somewhat) funny situation that happened to me one time. My parents bought some Lotto tickets and wanted to play, so they filled most of the combinations themselves and left two of them for me. I was annoyed by having to do that, so I take the tickets, and ask my dad, "So, you know that every combination is equally likely to win?", and he casually replies something like, "Yeah, sure, I'm not dumb".

So just to get done with it, I pick 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 on one combo and 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 on the other. I give it to him, when he throws his hands in the air and angrily says, "What the hell? You just wasted two combinations, these numbers are never going to get drawn!"

It handily illustrates how hard it is to grasp the concept of true randomness and probability, and even if you do get it, sometimes you'll be caught off guard and your psychological biases will kick in.

[abecedarius]

I ran through the same script with my dad once, except he answered "Yeah, but you'll have to split the pot with more smartasses like you."

[bronson]

"You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight. I was coming here, on the way to the lecture, and I came in through the parking lot. And you won't believe what happened. I saw a car with the license plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of license plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!" -- Feynman