Lottery statistics

[tall paul]

If the chances of winning a tenner are 1 in 49, could i be guaranteed to win if i bought 49 tickets (in the right combinations)

[TheHitMaker]

No. It is likely that you would win, but not definate.

[HomerSimpson]

Or, more properly, 'No. It is likely that you would win, but not definite.' So many people have problems spelling that last word.

[kiss2u]

am i being dumb? how can the chance of winning be 1 in 49. That would be the statistic, should you only have to pick 1 winning number to get a tenner. As you have to get thre, i believe the odd increase to 1 in so many thousands.

[kiss2u]

apologies for my typing errors!

[sddsddean]

But your chances of winning a tenner aren't 1 in 49. They are (49*48*47)/(3*2*1) = 1 in 18,424. The only time you would have a 1 in 49 chance is if you only had to pick only one number.

[moonacre]

Actually sddsddean I think you've calculated incorrectly and forgotten that you pick 3 from 6. The actual odds are 1 in (49/6)*(48/5)*(47/4)*(46/43)*(45/42)*(44/41) (which is 1 in 1133.119) for a single case. There are 20 combinations of 3 from 6 [6/(3*(6-3)], so the chance of matching 3 is 1 in 1133.119/20 or 1 in 56.7.

[tall paul]

thanks moonacre!!!!!..i was sure i heard when the lottery first started that the odds of winning a tenner were 50 ish to 1..I'm not going daft after all!! If i were to buy 56 tickets(with the right combinations of numbers) and be guaranteed to win ten pounds, how would that alter the statistics of me possibly winning more?????? Also.how would i go about selecting 56 combinations of 6 numbers????? Hmmmmmmm?????

[sddsddean]

Nuts! I had forgotten. Stats was never my strong point!

[sft42]

More important than all the above if you are interested in statisical chances of winning lotteries are the right number combinations to opt for. more often than not you will notice that two consecutive numbers will come up but NO lottery in the world has ever had more than four numbers in a row in a jackpot draw but in the New York lottery (Camelot won't release these figures) over 10,000 people each week pick 1,2,3,4,5,6 with little or no chance of winning. So pick wisely!!

[xyzzyplugh]

1,2,3,4,5,6, has just as much probability of winning as any other combinations. Why wouldn't it?