Powerball hits $450 Million

[josephpalazzo]

I haven't done the math, but that isn't what they say on the website. Are you using the current rules which are 69 white balls and 26 red balls?

No I didn't. I only considered choosing 5 numbers out of 69. Didn't know about the 26 red balls. Will do the calculation again. Thanks...

[PopeyesPappy]

Don't forget that you don't have to choose your numbers in order. You just have to pick five of 69 plus one of 26.

[josephpalazzo]

Yes, the odds as advertised is correct: number of combination = {69x68x67x66x65/(1x2x3x4x5)}x26 = 292,201,338

[TomFoolery]

Don't forget that you don't have to choose your numbers in order. You just have to pick five of 69 plus one of 26.

I remember once in South Carolina being stuck in line forever behind a woman at a gas station who got a quick pick ticket that had sequential numbers and was trying to return it. Unfortunately, you can't return lottery tickets, and she was mad because the cashier sold her a ticket that "couldn't possibly win." I tried explaining that since numbers weren't drawn sequentially, if the drawing was truly random, she had just as much chance of winning with a ticket that had numbers "22, 23, 24, 25, 26" as she did "1, 7, 18, 29, 48." Yes, the odds of winning are astronomical, but that's true for any set of five numbers.

I swear, she looked at me like I was practicing witchcraft.

[PopeyesPappy]

Yes, the odds as advertised is correct: number of combination = {69x68x67x66x65/(1x2x3x4x5)}x26 = 292,201,338

I would have been very very surprised if they weren't. The number of lawsuits would be stagering...

[PopeyesPappy]

I swear, she looked at me like I was practicing witchcraft.

From her POV you probably were. Facts, at least facts that don't support one's personal views, are nothing but black magic or damn lies to at least half the country.

[stromboli]

So if an atheist wins the lottery, is that proof god doesn't exist? The mind wonders.....

[josephpalazzo]

So if an atheist wins the lottery, is that proof god doesn't exist? The mind wonders.....

Depends... what he praying before his winnings?!??

[TomFoolery]

So if an atheist wins the lottery, is that proof god doesn't exist? The mind wonders.....

No! It's proof that God is sparing the religious from the temptation of worldly possessions and the tumult that comes with it.

[josephpalazzo]

I would have been very very surprised if they weren't. The number of lawsuits would be stagering...

Didn't know that the balls were in different colors, so my mistake...

[stromboli]

I have a theory that balls bouncing around in the bin thing might knock some of them slightly out of round, and balls with bigger numbers would be slightly heavier. Hence if you measured every ball for roundness and weight, you could determine which balls would more likely wind up in the chute thingy to count them. Pick ten number combinations with those balls and you would increase your odds of winning. Or not.

[trdsf]

It's currently up to $800M ($496M cash option).  I shall play my personal limit and not win, but I go into it knowing the odds and willing to waste ten bucks on an infinitesimally small chance that statistically ain't gonna hit me.

That said, yes, I can think of many ways to spend a lot of it.  Buy a car, buy a golf club membership, hire a cleaning person because yes I am that lazy, buy a better computer (buy a couple, actually), and then travel until I finally feel like coming home to the new house I'll have commissioned from Taliesin West to be done in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright, to include at least a server room, conservatory (to which more instruments than I already own will be added), library, attached greenhouse, telescope dome for a pier-mounted monstrosity, and a kitchen that would make Julia Child weep with envy.

I'd say most of the fun of playing the lottery is in fantasizing about what you'd do with it, except that realistically all of the fun of playing the lottery is in fantasizing about what you'd do with it.  :)

[josephpalazzo]

I have a theory that balls bouncing around in the bin thing might knock some of them slightly out of round, and balls with bigger numbers would be slightly heavier. Hence if you measured every ball for roundness and weight, you could determine which balls would more likely wind up in the chute thingy to count them. Pick ten number combinations with those balls and you would increase your odds of winning. Or not.

You could determine that by looking at the numbers that came out in previous drawings. If any have come out greater than their statistical norm, then maybe there is a flaw in the damn machine...;-)

[PopeyesPappy]

telescope dome for a pier-mounted monstrosity

You can pickup a Planwave PW1000 1 meter observatory system for $650K.

[Shiranu]

1 in 38 of winning your money and a dollar... That's not too terrible.