Question:
What is the probability of winning the Texas lottery by entering once? This
is the state lottery where six numbers between 1 and 50 are chosen.
Replies:
The number of combinations of 6 items taken from a pool of 50 is:
50!
------ = 15,890,700
44! 6!
Only 1 of these will be the winning combination, so you have 1 chance in 15,890,700 of winning with a single lottery ticket.
Therefore, the probability is 1/15,890,700 or about 0.000000063.
NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.