Similarly, collectors of four-leaf clovers hone their skills to overcome the long odds of finding them by chance alone.
The Odds of Finding a Four-Leaf Clover Revisited: How Do Some People Find So Many?!
This may seem to be an odd time to write about four-leaf clovers, the traditional Irish lucky charms. However, clovers are currently growing full-force in my yard!
I was out doing yard work when I noticed patches of clovers. I blame my neighbor for them because, while I have patches of clover in my grass, he has patches of grass in his clover filled yard! The clovers got me thinking about Carly Barry’s post about the odds of finding four-leaf clovers. It also prompted some fun, backyard science with my daughter!
In Carly’s blog, reader comments raise a number of questions. If four-leaf clovers are so rare, how is it possible for some people to find so many? Some readers report that they regularly find four-leaf clovers. Others claim that it only takes minutes to find one, or even half a dozen! Maybe they are luckier, or perhaps there are some factors that affect their chances of finding four-leaf clovers?
One of the most important things we do in statistics is to identify the factors that affect an outcome. In this blog, I explore how it’s possible to find so many four-leaf clovers despite the low odds.
White Clovers a.k.a Trifolium Repens
Tradition holds that you are lucky if you find a white clover that has four leaves. These clovers are named after their white flowers. In their scientific name, Trifolium means three-leafed, the usual number for this species. There are other types of clovers that typically have four leaves, so watch out for imposters!
It’s widely cited that one out of every 10,000 white clovers has four-leaves. I was surprised to learn that there are even five-leaf clovers, and more! The Guinness world record for the most leaves on a clover is 56!
How Much Area Do You Need to Find a Four-Leaf Clover?
If the odds of finding a four-leaf clover are truly 1-in-10,000, how much area do you need for 10,000 clovers? I really had no idea if it was the size of a field, or a typical backyard. This point is where my 8 year-old daughter and I had some good, hands-on science fun in our backyard while learning about estimating.
As you can see in the picture, we measured out a six-inch square and laid it over a patch of fairly dense clovers. As we picked the clovers on the top layer, we noticed there was another layer of clovers below it, and another one below that. After we picked all of the clovers out of the square, we counted them.
That quarter of a square foot patch had about 200 clovers. Doing some simple math, we estimated that there are 800 clovers per square foot and 10,000 clovers can grow in just 12.5 square feet (1.2 m 2 ). For the 1-in-100,000 five-leaf clovers, you’d need 125 square feet (11.6 m 2 ).
We both thought it was going to be a much larger area, which would make finding them more difficult. However, you don’t need to scour an entire field to find a four-leaf clover. Instead, you can expect to find 10,000 clovers in a 3’ X 4’ area. That helps to explain the ease that some have of finding them!
How to Draw a Clover For Kids
Here is your clover when you are done. Color it in and that’s it. You now have yourself a simple shamrock that you can have fun coloring in.
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Description: Here is one for St. Patrick’s Day that kids will love. Here is a simple tutorial on “how to draw a clover for kids“, step by step. The clover is a grassy looking plant that can be found in fields all over the world. Since St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner, I thought that this would make an exciting and bright lesson that can be enjoyed by artists of all skill levels. If you would like to see something else on Dragoart that you haven’t seen before, just let me know. Adios people and enjoy drawing a clover of your own.
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