Why people tend to believe on such superstitions?
Let us see some reported incidences given below:
• The Rail Gazette International carried the following report in its April 1979 issue:
" As reported in last month, opening of Indian Railway's Hassan-Mangalore line marks completion of a construction task every bit as difficult as the Waltair-Kirandul mineral line which so severely taxed I.R.Engineers a decade ago. In the highly unstable terrain of this part of Karnataka, new solutions had to be found to a number of complex engineering problems.
Not the least of the difficulties was tunnel No. 13 where 5 rock falls impeded progress for months. Even Alpine-trained Engineers were perplexed until some one came up with the simplest of solutions. The tunnel was renamed as No. 12-A and suddenly all was well."
• In a British study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993, titled " Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?", a comparison was made between the ratios of traffic volume to number of accidents on two different days i.e. Friday 6th and Friday 13th. It was concluded that though the traffic volume was less on Friday 13th, the number of hospitalizations due to accidents were more. Their conclusion: "Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."
• The most famous example of unlucky 13 myths is the unsuccessful mission of Apollo 13 launched at 13.13 hours.There was an explosion of an oxygen tank of Apollo 13, which was on its way to moon. The explosion occurred on April 13, 1970. Apollo 13 was the only unsuccessful mission by the United States of Americas NASA program to land a mission on the moon.