In academic papers, author initials are used for various purposes, like stating acknowledgements or COI, so I often have to help authors deal with the case where authors have overlapping initials.
I’d be interested to solve the following problem:
Given the frequency of each letter at the start of given names and surnames, how many authors must be listed to give a 50% probability that 2 of them will have the same initials.
I feel like the number is much smaller in Japanese than in English 🤔
We don’t get to see any aurora here, but at least the coronal mass ejection didn’t destroy the power grid, satellites, and other electronics to plunge society into a post-apocalyptic hellscape 🤷♀️
