Enterprise has a crew of 1000 souls. 1000 / 365, means that on average 2 - 3 people share a birthday.

Plugging this into a birthday calculator, there’s a very high chance at least 7 people share a birthday on the Enterprise. Not only that, but there should only be 24 days in the year when Ten Forward isn’t occupied with a birthday party.

So given that birthday collisions are plentiful, and that birthdays are constantly happening, and that Ten Forward is the only bar in the whole damn ship… my question is: Why does Riker get to celebrate his alone with full fanfare?

Edit: Birthday Math you asked for it

  • The probability that anyone has a birthday on any given day is 1/365 and can be modeled with a Binomial distribution (Yes/No).
    • Y ~ Binomial(n=1000, p=1/365)
  • When the number of samples is large (ship of 1000 people) and the probability is small, you can model repeated Binomial distributions using a Poisson distribution (independently occurring random events at regular intervals kinda) with a mean of 1000/365.
    • Y ~ Poisson(μ = 2.74)
  • The probability mass function (area under the curve) gives you the probability of a value against that distribution, and for Poisson is PMF(Poisson) = e-μ*(μk / k!)
    • P(Y = K) = PMF(μ, k) (for K exact events, e.g. 10 birthdays)
  • So to calculate the probability of 10 birthdays in a year, you do: 365 * e-2.74*(2.7410 / 10!) = 0.155 days (i.e. zero)

The following python snippet gives you these outcomes:

Code 
import math
def poisson_pmf(mean, k):
     return(math.exp(-mean)*mean**k/math.factorial(k))

def num_days_with_birthdays(num_people, num_birthdays): 
    return(round(365*poisson_pmf(num_people/365, num_birthdays)))

souls = 1000
print(*(f"{n:2d} days with {x:2d} birthdays"
        for x in range(50)
        if (n := num_days_with_birthdays(souls, x))),
      sep="\n")

## For a ship of 1000 people in a 365 day/year cycle
24 days with  0 birthdays
65 days with  1 birthdays
88 days with  2 birthdays
81 days with  3 birthdays
55 days with  4 birthdays
30 days with  5 birthdays
14 days with  6 birthdays
 5 days with  7 birthdays
 2 days with  8 birthdays
 1 days with  9 birthdays

Edit2: In retrospect, Riker could have been one of those 65 people
Edit3: But even then! You don’t necessarily do your birthday on the exact day, but wait until the Friday or Saturday night to celebrate it, which would definitely have collisions. So Riker’s either super special, or an inconsiderate prick. There, solved it

  • cattywampas@lemmy.world
    90·
    3 days ago

    Second Officers personal log, supplemental. This is the one thousand five hundred fiftieth day since the Enterprise was commissioned. Besides the arrival of Ambassador T’Pel, other events occurring today include four birthdays, two personnel transfers, a celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights, two chess tournaments, one secondary school play, and four promotions. Overall, an ordinary day.

    S4E11, “Data’s Day”

  • JohnJohnJohn@lemmy.world
    11·
    3 days ago

    Guys we forgot to take into account not everyone on the ship was born on earth. We have to figure out the average length of year for the average habitable planet in the federation. Also if they celebrate their birthdays based on when their birthday happens on their home planet then wouldn’t traveling at warp greatly speed up the relative birth days per 365 Voyager year? No, actually I’m pretty sure Riker is just an attention seeking smarmy manslut.

  • usernamefactory@lemmy.caEnglish
    43·
    3 days ago

    So given that birthday collisions are plentiful, and that birthdays are constantly happening, and that Ten Forward is the only bar in the whole damn ship…

    Obvious answer: it’s the main characters’ favourite bar, but it’s not the only bar on the ship.

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
    36·
    3 days ago

    Federation ships mostly observe an Earth cycle of hours, and probably a year too. But birthdays are tied to a person’s home planet, and it’s unlikely most of them are around 365 days. So the frequency is probably skewed depending on who is serving on the ship at the time. Or if they even have such a celebration.

    • MimicJar@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 days ago

      It also skews both ways. If a star date is roughly one Earth day, then an alien might have their “birthday” last three days, or only a third of a day. When do they celebrate?

      Also fun to think about is that most starships generally have three shifts and the concept of night. But that’s all based on an Earth day. Humans have a circadian rhythm that matches a 24 hour day. But what if you need 16 hours of sleep as an alien? What if working 4 hours feels like 16 hours?

    • kossa@feddit.org
      21·
      3 days ago

      Then again, most of the world measures their time in “years since Jesus, but a bit off” and the Roman “12 months and weird amount of days each month”, besides a lot of different calendars existing. At least in official terms. So, the Federation and adjacent cultures might as well stick to the official calendaring anyways.

      Part of Federational Imperialism, I guess.

  • festus@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    3 days ago

    Other people have great points, but also the crew work different shifts, so some birthday celebrations would happen while the main characters are sleeping.

  • Rob T Firefly@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    Ten Forward isn’t the only lounge on the ship, just the main fancy one with the staffed bar. There are observation lounges and other, smaller lounges scattered all throughout the ship. Maybe it’s just senior officers who get to have birthdays in the cool hangout spot, while others will just throw a party in whatever lounges are closest to their own quarters.

  • atomicbocks@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    221·
    3 days ago

    AFAIK the ‘official’ blueprints list some 40+ restaurants, bars, and other similar amenities on board. There is also things like the arboretum and holodecks.

  • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
    212·
    3 days ago

    Why does Riker get to celebrate his alone with full fanfare?

    • everyone on the ship probably lives on a 3 shift schedule, that changes the calculations significantly.
    • not everyone is a party person and feel the need to have their birthday accompanied by jazz quartet
    • lower decks probably do their celebrations in utility closet 7
    • using the phrase “something something” is lame, you can do better
      • 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip
        3·
        3 days ago

        yet you acknowledged none of the pointers you were given. these 1000 birthdays don’t spread over 365 days and ten forward. they spread over 365*3=1095 shifts and multiple establishments on the ship (bars, holodecks, private quarters). and just like that, your problem ceased to exist…

        • tetris11@feddit.ukOPEnglish
          1·
          3 days ago

          (Christ you’re cheerful on a Friday…)

          Aren’t there still some strings being pulled for Riker’s sake to occupy the most popular social square of the ship?

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
    5·
    3 days ago

    Cuz he’s the boss, and everybody has to kiss the boss’s ass.

    Picard is the real boss, but everybody knows he’d get all pissy if they tried to throw him a birthday party. He’s such a grump.

  • Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    Also, it is much more likely that the memo to reserve Ten Forward for Riker’s birthday made it to Picard in a timely fashion as since one of his friends would be putting this together. As his friends are all Heads of Department, the memo chain is Originator -> XO (Riker) -> CO (Picard).

  • Kushan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    Don’t forget, not everyone on the ship is from earth which means their birthdays might not be celebrated every 365 days (or at all, is it’s not part of their culture).

    • tetris11@feddit.ukOPEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      I would love to come from a planet with 100 days in a year. I’d be like “sorry guys, I’m not at work tomorrow, it’s the second of my three birthdays! I’m 106.”

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    Keep in mind the entire crew doesn’t celebrate everyone’s birthday, and even if they did, they’d probably do the soulless corpo thing and do birthdays once a month.

    In any case, its also important to note that ten forward isn’t the only crew lounge.

    • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 days ago

      There are likely a lot of crew on the D who don’t want the hustle and bustle of Ten Forward, plus with how often it’d get close for a private affair.

      Also, I’m sure there are plenty of crew who would rather spend their birthday in their quarters with a couple of friends relaxing and playing games having a smaller more intimate time