Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?

Isn't this the wrong problem? It lets you enter X dollars, then it simulates if you played $1 on X numbers of sequential drawings... which would have terrible odds. Wouldn't it be better to simulate X numbers on Y draws, which would lead you to know the number of times/people would have to play to win.

I don't think probability is communicative, is it?

EDIT: It would also be neat to simulate the number of winners you would have to share the prize with, based on numbers entered in the form from users.

Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?

#7

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 8:07 PM UTC

baldeagle wrote: post #6

Isn't this the wrong problem? It lets you enter X dollars, then it simulates if you played $1 on X numbers of sequential drawings... which would have terrible odds. Wouldn't it be better to simulate X numbers on Y draws, which would lead you to know the number of times/people would have to play to win. I don't think probability is communicative, is it? EDIT: It would also be neat to simulate the number of winners you…

[deleted]

Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?

#8

Post by cableshaft » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 8:07 PM UTC

baldeagle wrote: post #6

Isn't this the wrong problem? It lets you enter X dollars, then it simulates if you played $1 on X numbers of sequential drawings... which would have terrible odds. Wouldn't it be better to simulate X numbers on Y draws, which would lead you to know the number of times/people would have to play to win. I don't think probability is communicative, is it? EDIT: It would also be neat to simulate the number of winners you…

Agreed, I want to play where I can put as much money into it for each drawing, and then it simulates that, not one ticket one drawing.

I'm not doing this in reality (I spent $2 for a pool, woo), but I'm curious to see it simulated.

Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?

#9

Post by sandworm101 » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

Is this an article or an attempt to harvest paycheck information?

Re: Here’s $100. Can you win $800M at Powerball?

#10

Post by maxerickson » Fri, Jan 08, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

This is a fascinating sentence:

While the large jackpot prize may be tempting, it's extremely hard to have that one ticket in 292 million.

I think my favorite part is that extremely hard isn't a very accurate description of how unlikely it is.