Extreme value theory and the St. Petersburg paradox in the failure statistics of wires

The fracture stress of materials typically depends on the sample size and is traditionally explained in terms of extreme value statistics. A recent work reported results on the carrying capacity of long polyamide and polyester wires and interpret the results in terms of a probabilistic argument known as the St. Petersburg paradox. Here, we show that the same results can be better explained in terms of extreme value statistics. We also discuss the relevance of rate dependent effects.