[tosser0001]

An analog of the birthday paradox that gets me all the time is what I think of as The Locker Room Paradox. This is where when I go into the locker room after working out and the guy who comes in behind me ends in the locker right next to mine. So there’s two of us in a big empty room awkwardly jostling away.

[quietbritishjim]

(Apologies for the fun-ruining comment.)

For it to be a true analogue if the birthday paradox, it would have to happen rarely to you individually, but surprisingly often to one pair of people in the locker room when there are a smallish number in there.

[GuB-42]

I think it is closer to the reason why it is surprisingly difficult to throw a rock through a wire fence even when the rock is much smaller than the holes in the fence. We tend to underestimate the area of interaction between the rock and the fence.

If you take a locker in the middle, there will be 8 lockers right next to yours, which may represent a sizable fraction of the total number. Combine that people are not random and that they tend to forget about the times where it doesn't happen and it may seem like it happens all the time even when it is uncommon on average.

[xydone]

Assuming you don't have an automated system to give away locker keys, wouldn't this be explained by the fact that gym front desk is more likely to give out the lowest number available and as you took X, they will give out X+1 for the next person?

[dustincoates]

I've never been to a gym where you're assigned a locker for the day (or given a key). Either you have one permanently assigned (rare) or you go in and find one that isn't occupied.

[moribvndvs]

There’s also the Aisle at a Show Paradox: as a tall guy, no matter where I stand at a concert I always seem to end up being the guy people decide is the aisle and jostle their way around me when transiting from one area of the venue to the other.

I haven’t tested this hypothesis yet but I suspect I could be wandering the desert and out of no where someone will try to slink past me while saying excuse me and spilling my canteen all over.

[DiscourseFan]

>awkwardly jostling away

I imagine it’d be more fun in a group setting?