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

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

#21

Post by cbhl »

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…

But there are only two drawings a week, right? If you only bought one ticket with the same six numbers for every single drawing in a year, you could only spend 532$3 = $318/year on lottery tickets. If you wanted to spend $100 on tomorrow's $800M prize, you have to buy 33 tickets against one set of winning numbers.

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

#22

Post by cbhl »

jchendy wrote: post #17
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…

It's also not clear what the end condition is. I edited the source so that it always picks my numbers, and it just keeps going. So far I've spent $2,734 and won over a trillion.

It stops when balance = 0, i.e. you spent $x + all your winnings on lottery tickets.

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

#27

Post by CPLX »

rdtsc wrote: post #18

The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd: "Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up" Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.

Lottery as a service

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

#28

Post by pjbriggs »

rdtsc wrote: post #18

The obvious equivalent for the HN crowd: "Here is $50k. Now quit your job and start a start-up" Difficulty bonus -- startup idea is generated by a Markov chain and could be anything -- "Uber for dogs", "Taxidermied pets as drones" etc.

are you telling me a markov chain came up with these 2 at least billion dollar ideas?
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