From: David Neary (nearyd at domain khumbu.eeng.dcu.ie)
Date: Thu 28 Oct 1999 - 15:44:03 IST
On Thu, 28 Oct 1999, John P . Looney wrote:
> Question though. I was doing the lotto calculation, and:
>
> ==> (/ (factorial 42) (factorial 36))
> 3776965920
>
> Is it really a 3.777 billion to one chance of winning now ?
>
> 42*41*40*39*38*37=3776965920
No, the probability of winning the lotto with one line are 42C6,
42!/(6!36!), which is nearly 3 orders of magnitude smaller(5.25 million to
1). The Lotto's argument has always been that since people buy at least
two lines, their odds of winning on a 1.50 ticket are doubled, making it a
2.625 million to 1 shot. Still about as much chance of a pin dropped into
a vat of rice sticking in your grain...but hey.
> Kate
Dave.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Thu 06 Feb 2003 - 13:04:48 GMT