Think you'll win the lottery Jackpot?
Discussion
Well think again !
There are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
That's it! You have a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning the lottery Jackpot. :eek:
Here are some other odds for the sake of comparison:
You have about a 1 in 2,000,000 chance of being struck by lightning.
Vixpy1 has a 1 in 8,000,000 chance that his picture of him holding a dildo will not appear on PH again. :hehe:
A pregnant woman has a 1 in 705,000 chance of giving birth to quadruplets.
Someone eating an oyster has a 1 in 12,000 chance of finding a pearl inside of it.
Now, lottery odds can be pretty incomprehensible. How can we possibly have any "feeling" for the number 13,983,816? To help you with this, here's a little experiment you can try to "get a handle on" what a 1 in 13,983,816 chance really means.
[b]Get a piece of rope or string, that's 39 feet long.[/b]
In a wide open area, arrange the rope or string in a circle, end to end, the best you can.
Get a single grain of sand or dirt (use tweezers!) and place it anywhere you wish inside the circle.
Get a second grain of sand. Close your eyes, and "disorient" yourself as to where the grain of sand is that you placed inside of the circle (have someone spin you around or something!).
While you're inside the circle, drop the second grain of sand from 1 foot up.
Your chances of hitting the first grain of sand with the second is roughly equal to the odds of "1 in 13,983,816."
If the rope's length mentioned above is a little unreasonable, for every foot above the circle that you drop the second grain of sand, you can reduce the length of the string by the same amount. For example, if you dropped the second grain of sand from a ladder 10 feet up, you'd need a length of string that is 10 times shorter than the one above, or a 39/10 = 3.85236 foot long piece of string.
Good luck! And sorry to say that the only way to increase your chances of winning is to buy more tickets! Choosing birthdays, your age, addresses, years, phone numbers, etc. does not help at all!
There are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
That's it! You have a 1 in 13,983,816 chance of winning the lottery Jackpot. :eek:
Here are some other odds for the sake of comparison:
You have about a 1 in 2,000,000 chance of being struck by lightning.
Vixpy1 has a 1 in 8,000,000 chance that his picture of him holding a dildo will not appear on PH again. :hehe:
A pregnant woman has a 1 in 705,000 chance of giving birth to quadruplets.
Someone eating an oyster has a 1 in 12,000 chance of finding a pearl inside of it.
Now, lottery odds can be pretty incomprehensible. How can we possibly have any "feeling" for the number 13,983,816? To help you with this, here's a little experiment you can try to "get a handle on" what a 1 in 13,983,816 chance really means.
[b]Get a piece of rope or string, that's 39 feet long.[/b]
In a wide open area, arrange the rope or string in a circle, end to end, the best you can.
Get a single grain of sand or dirt (use tweezers!) and place it anywhere you wish inside the circle.
Get a second grain of sand. Close your eyes, and "disorient" yourself as to where the grain of sand is that you placed inside of the circle (have someone spin you around or something!).
While you're inside the circle, drop the second grain of sand from 1 foot up.
Your chances of hitting the first grain of sand with the second is roughly equal to the odds of "1 in 13,983,816."
If the rope's length mentioned above is a little unreasonable, for every foot above the circle that you drop the second grain of sand, you can reduce the length of the string by the same amount. For example, if you dropped the second grain of sand from a ladder 10 feet up, you'd need a length of string that is 10 times shorter than the one above, or a 39/10 = 3.85236 foot long piece of string.
Good luck! And sorry to say that the only way to increase your chances of winning is to buy more tickets! Choosing birthdays, your age, addresses, years, phone numbers, etc. does not help at all!
When you select your 1st number, you have 49 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 49 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 49 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/49 or 0.020408.)
When you select your 2nd number, you have 48 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 48 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 48 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/48 or 0.020833.)
When you select your 3rd number, you have 47 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 47 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 47 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/47 or 0.021277.)
When you select your 4th number, you have 46 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 46 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 46 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/46 or 0.021739.)
When you select your 5th number, you have 45 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 45 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 45 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/45 or 0.022222.)
When you select your 6th number, you have 44 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 44 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 44 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/44 or 0.022727.)
In order to win, you have to pick the first number right AND the second number right AND the third number right, etc. In the language of statistics, AND usually means to multiply.
So, to figure out your odds of winning, multiply together all of the fractional odds of picking a given number correctly, as stated by the red fractions above.
1/49 × 1/48 × 1/47 × 1/46 × 1/45 × 1/44 = 1/10068347520
So, at this point, your odds of winning are 1 in 10068347520. But, since you can choose your winning numbers in any order, your chances of winning are somewhat better than this. Your chance betters by the number of different ways that a sequence of 6 numbers can be written down, which for 6 numbers is 6! (6 factorial) or 720. Divide 10068347520 by 720 to account for this, to get 13983816.
In other words, there are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
...a 1 in 49 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 49 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/49 or 0.020408.)
When you select your 2nd number, you have 48 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 48 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 48 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/48 or 0.020833.)
When you select your 3rd number, you have 47 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 47 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 47 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/47 or 0.021277.)
When you select your 4th number, you have 46 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 46 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 46 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/46 or 0.021739.)
When you select your 5th number, you have 45 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 45 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 45 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/45 or 0.022222.)
When you select your 6th number, you have 44 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 44 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 44 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/44 or 0.022727.)
In order to win, you have to pick the first number right AND the second number right AND the third number right, etc. In the language of statistics, AND usually means to multiply.
So, to figure out your odds of winning, multiply together all of the fractional odds of picking a given number correctly, as stated by the red fractions above.
1/49 × 1/48 × 1/47 × 1/46 × 1/45 × 1/44 = 1/10068347520
So, at this point, your odds of winning are 1 in 10068347520. But, since you can choose your winning numbers in any order, your chances of winning are somewhat better than this. Your chance betters by the number of different ways that a sequence of 6 numbers can be written down, which for 6 numbers is 6! (6 factorial) or 720. Divide 10068347520 by 720 to account for this, to get 13983816.
In other words, there are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
My old dog got struck by lightening twice - should have got him to paw out a lottery ticket
I remember reading about a family who got 5 numbers (a 4 figure prize) THEN the next week, got 5 numbers again! The odds ran into the billions-1, but the prize didn't buy a new fiesta!
I had a good system, which produced fairly good results for a nominal outlay (£16 IIRC) - the most impressive win we had was 2 lines each with 4 numbers (the 6 winning balls plus 2 duplicates).
The system was great when it worked, but a pain to fill out! Rarely bother now.
I remember reading about a family who got 5 numbers (a 4 figure prize) THEN the next week, got 5 numbers again! The odds ran into the billions-1, but the prize didn't buy a new fiesta!
I had a good system, which produced fairly good results for a nominal outlay (£16 IIRC) - the most impressive win we had was 2 lines each with 4 numbers (the 6 winning balls plus 2 duplicates).
The system was great when it worked, but a pain to fill out! Rarely bother now.
The number of possible tickets is as detailed below, and can be written as
49!/(6! x (49-6)!)
It doesn't matter what numbers you choose, the chances of winning are exactly the same. The one thing you can alter is to minimise your chances of sharing a win if your numbers come up - which is down to psychology.
If you choose 1,2,3,4,5,6 and win, you will share the jackpot with an estimated 10,000 other people. If you choose numbers above 31 you are much less likely to have the same numbers as other people since you're out of date range.
I seem to remember an early draw where 50-odd people shared the win, and only got £100k each.
49!/(6! x (49-6)!)
It doesn't matter what numbers you choose, the chances of winning are exactly the same. The one thing you can alter is to minimise your chances of sharing a win if your numbers come up - which is down to psychology.
If you choose 1,2,3,4,5,6 and win, you will share the jackpot with an estimated 10,000 other people. If you choose numbers above 31 you are much less likely to have the same numbers as other people since you're out of date range.
I seem to remember an early draw where 50-odd people shared the win, and only got £100k each.
I'm beginning to think it''s rigged.
How many times have we had a rollover to coincide with a bank holiday /christmas/new year when people are more likely to buy tickets?
All the computers are linked and so the numbers on all the tickets are known in advance. So it's theoretically possible for the central computer to work out which combination of numbers hasn't been been chosen by anyone.
Weight or magnetise the balls in the machine with those numbers on and Hey Presto! It's a rollover.
Independent adjudicator, my arse!
How many times have we had a rollover to coincide with a bank holiday /christmas/new year when people are more likely to buy tickets?
All the computers are linked and so the numbers on all the tickets are known in advance. So it's theoretically possible for the central computer to work out which combination of numbers hasn't been been chosen by anyone.
Weight or magnetise the balls in the machine with those numbers on and Hey Presto! It's a rollover.
Independent adjudicator, my arse!
My ex's mother is an inveterate gambler. She lives in a modest semi. She reckons she is good on the gee-gees and has 'lucky numbers' she always puts on the lottery.
Words were exchanged one day.
planetdave 'if those numbers are so lucky then why haven't they come up yet? And if you're so good at picking horses how come the bookie lives in that flash house (I've met him a few times) and you live...here'
ex M.I.L. 'harumpff' and flounce.
I buy Lotto tickets. The odds may be rediculous...but so is the idea of me earning £5,000,000 under my own steam.
Words were exchanged one day.
planetdave 'if those numbers are so lucky then why haven't they come up yet? And if you're so good at picking horses how come the bookie lives in that flash house (I've met him a few times) and you live...here'
ex M.I.L. 'harumpff' and flounce.
I buy Lotto tickets. The odds may be rediculous...but so is the idea of me earning £5,000,000 under my own steam.
lazyitus said:
When you select your 1st number, you have 49 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 49 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 49 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/49 or 0.020408.)
When you select your 2nd number, you have 48 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 48 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 48 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/48 or 0.020833.)
When you select your 3rd number, you have 47 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 47 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 47 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/47 or 0.021277.)
When you select your 4th number, you have 46 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 46 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 46 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/46 or 0.021739.)
When you select your 5th number, you have 45 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 45 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 45 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/45 or 0.022222.)
When you select your 6th number, you have 44 numbers to choose from, and...
...a 1 in 44 chance of picking the right one.
(Mathematically, 1 in 44 is represented by the numerical fraction 1/44 or 0.022727.)
In order to win, you have to pick the first number right AND the second number right AND the third number right, etc. In the language of statistics, AND usually means to multiply.
So, to figure out your odds of winning, multiply together all of the fractional odds of picking a given number correctly, as stated by the red fractions above.
1/49 × 1/48 × 1/47 × 1/46 × 1/45 × 1/44 = 1/10068347520
So, at this point, your odds of winning are 1 in 10068347520. But, since you can choose your winning numbers in any order, your chances of winning are somewhat better than this. Your chance betters by the number of different ways that a sequence of 6 numbers can be written down, which for 6 numbers is 6! (6 factorial) or 720. Divide 10068347520 by 720 to account for this, to get 13983816.
In other words, there are 720 different ways that the 6 numbers you choose can be filled out on your lottery ticket--if you choose your 6 numbers correctly, any of these ways will make a winning ticket.
or you can just do 49^6
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