From: Cakalusa@yahoo.com
To: admin@vanessacarlton.com
Please forward:
Wow! You're really pretty =) I'm one of your fans!!! Please note that I am not claiming to be your number one fan.
"Why do I say this?" you may ask. Let us look into this in greater detail.
We must ask ourselves two questions:
1. Is it possible for so many people to claim that they are your number one fan?
2. Am I your number one fan?
1. Is it possible for so many people to claim that they are your biggest fan?
Given:
The number of Number One Fans (NOF) possible is a constant, and that constant must be equal to one.
C = 1; C = number of NOFs possible
Assume:
There are many people who claim that they are your NOF (because you're so beautiful and talented.)
n > 1; n = number of people who claim to be your NOF
Therefore:
At least one person who claims that they are your NOF is making a false statement.
2. Am I your number one fan?
Given:
According to VH1, you have sold 511,000 albums, as of July 24, 2002. For the purposes of this proof, it is sufficient to assume that you have not sold any more albums.
Assume:
Your actual number of fans can be calculated by the number of albums sold times two (the buyer of the album and one friend who also respects you as an artist, but did not buy your album. This approximation also takes into account loss of sales due to internet-based piracy.)
F = 511,000 x 2 = 1,022,000; F = actual numbers of fans
Assume:
The probability that a randomly selected person is your NOF is very small.
Given that you are a fan (A), the probability that one randomly selected person is the NOF (B) is:
P(A) = 1,022,000/288,365,954 = .0035
P(A and B) = 1/1,022,000 = 9.785 x 10^-7)
P(B/A) = P(A and B)/P(A) = 9.785 x 10^(-7)/.0035 = 2.761 x 10^(-4)
Given that I am a fan, the chance that I am your NOF is 2.761 x 10^(-4).
Given that the entire population of the United States is a candidate for purchasing your album, the probability that a randomly selected person is your NOF is:
1/total population = 1/288,365,954 = 3.47 x 10^(-9)
There is a 1 in 288,365,954 chance that I am your NOF.
Therefore:
I am most probably not your NOF.
>>>So to answer the question, "Why do I say that I am merely one of your biggest fans?":
There is only one NOF, and were I to claim that I am your number one fan, it is statistically significant to assert that I would most likely be incorrect.
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Yeah, so I had some time on my hands, so what? Sue me. | 
