In addition to gwern’s reply, if you read it as 10-to-1 to 12-to-1 odds, or even 1012-to-1 odds, and not 10^12-to-1 odds, then obviously there are lots of physical theories that deal with events that are less likely than 1/1012. And lots of experiments whose outcome people are more than 1012-to-1 sure about, and they are right to be so sure.
You quoted the most ridiculous figure, that of 10-to-1 or 12-to-1. I’m quite legitimately more than 12-to-1 sure about some things in physics, and I’m not even a physicist! The Wikipedia talk quote makes the point that all three possible quotes are to be found on the internet.
In addition to gwern’s reply, if you read it as 10-to-1 to 12-to-1 odds, or even 1012-to-1 odds, and not 10^12-to-1 odds, then obviously there are lots of physical theories that deal with events that are less likely than 1/1012. And lots of experiments whose outcome people are more than 1012-to-1 sure about, and they are right to be so sure.
You quoted the most ridiculous figure, that of 10-to-1 or 12-to-1. I’m quite legitimately more than 12-to-1 sure about some things in physics, and I’m not even a physicist! The Wikipedia talk quote makes the point that all three possible quotes are to be found on the internet.