Frequency of exceedance any peak exceeding is . Its complement, is the probability of exceedance, the probability that has been exceeded at least once by time . This probability can be useful to estimate whether an extreme event will occur during a specified time period, such as the lifespan of a structure or the duration of an operation. If is small, for example for the frequency of a rare event occurring in a short time period, then Under this assumption, the frequency of exceedance is equal to the probability of exceedance per unit time, , and the probability of exceedance can be computed
Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be? And nobody knew she was there. The second old lady was Abigail Splatter. She went there 'cause something was definitely the matter. But when she got there, it was only her bladder, And nobody knew she was there. </poem> One suggested precursor to the bawdy song, recorded in William's "Upper Thames" collection is the following "old morris fragment": <poem> Oh, dear, what can the matter be? Three old women tied to an apple tree! One ran away, the others stopped till Saturday. Oh, dear, what can the matter be? </poem> As with many folk songs and tall tales each verse