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Storiesluis » luis's stories » That Lottery Ticket
Here's a quick nugget of mathematical truth to think about while having your mancomm meeting this morning (because god forbid you actually pay attention).
"Statistically speaking, your chances of winning the lottery are higher if you find a ticket on the ground, than if you actually bought one."
Interesting. I turned this over in my head for a little bit before the reasoning unraveled itself for me like an elegant ball of meat-sauce spaghetti. The difference between finding a ticket and buying a ticket is of course, just that: a single ticket.
To clarify: Let's say there have been a million tickets sold at this point. If you proceeded to buy a ticket, your chances of winning would be 1 in 1,000,001. However, if you found one of those previously-sold tickets on the ground somewhere and took it instead, your chances would be 1 in 1,000,000. That's obviously better odds, although I doubt you'll win any lotteries this way in real life ;)
"Statistically speaking, your chances of winning the lottery are higher if you find a ticket on the ground, than if you actually bought one."
Interesting. I turned this over in my head for a little bit before the reasoning unraveled itself for me like an elegant ball of meat-sauce spaghetti. The difference between finding a ticket and buying a ticket is of course, just that: a single ticket.
To clarify: Let's say there have been a million tickets sold at this point. If you proceeded to buy a ticket, your chances of winning would be 1 in 1,000,001. However, if you found one of those previously-sold tickets on the ground somewhere and took it instead, your chances would be 1 in 1,000,000. That's obviously better odds, although I doubt you'll win any lotteries this way in real life ;)
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the chances of you actually winning the lottery from buying a ticket is 1 out of 5,489,031,744.
since only a handful of people buy these tickets a day (and by a handful i mean a handful relative to 5 and a half billion), your chances are way hgiher.
but then, the chances of you finding that lucky ticket would be Z-E-R-O. so what was the point of this again? :)
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it’s not really about winning, it’s about having better chances. a ticket that someone else bought and is now in your possession has better chances of winning because you didn’t add to the total number of people playing; instead you took someone else’s “place.”
