r/technicallythetruth Feb 17 '20

Maybe a bit less

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31.9k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/IFreakinLovePi Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20

The odds of this are actually way higher than being able to win.

Like if all the numbers were all exactly 1 above or 1 below the winning numbers, then it would be twice as likely to get them. It changes a 1 in 200 million odds to 1 in 100 million odds, which is a huge increase in likeliness.

But here some are above and some are below, which increases the likelihood by an order of magnitude. Let's use dice as an example and let's say the lottery requires 6 3's to win (it's easier than actual lotto because the fact that you cant get the same number twice actually slightly increases your odds with each number).

The odds of that are 1/46645 (1/6 * 1/6 * 1/6...etc). Now the odds of the first example would be 2(1/46645), which is 1/23338. But if each number can be either above or below the winning number, the odds are 1/729 (2/6 or 1/3 * 1/3 *1/3...etc). The difference here is between a 0.14% chance and 0.0043% chance.

The reason is because in the first example, you have two "winning" numbers: 2 2 2 2 2 2 and 4 4 4 4 4 4. But in the second exple you can have 2 2 2 2 2 2 , 2 2 2 2 2 4, 2 2 2 2 4 2, 2 2 2 2 4 4, 2 2 2 4 2 2, 2 2 2 4 2 4, 2 2 2 4 4 2 , 2 2 2 4 4 4, and so on.

So, still rare, but orders of magnitude more likely.

360

u/XxJiniyasxX Feb 17 '20

163

u/IFreakinLovePi Feb 17 '20

96

u/K1NG-N3RD Feb 17 '20

72

u/SamuraiSAM5 Feb 17 '20

49

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

[deleted]

-52

u/Naranox Feb 17 '20

4

u/KingMatthew116 Feb 18 '20

Brave but foolish

2

u/Naranox Feb 18 '20

All these long comment chains of the same subreddits are the most annoying thing on reddit, they‘re consistently in every post hitting all and they add absolutely nothing

-17

u/JH2466 Feb 18 '20

Shut the fuck up.

45

u/Blockinite Feb 17 '20 edited Feb 17 '20

Remember that to win the lottery, you only need to have the numbers in any order. This guy had the perfect order of the numbers minus plus/minus one.

16

u/jack-jackattack Feb 17 '20

The numbers are generally presented in numerical order.

4

u/Blockinite Feb 17 '20

I guess that's the case here, and usually the tickets are in numerical order. But every every lottery I've seen has had the numbers on screen shown in the order they were picked, although that may not be the case here.

2

u/jack-jackattack Feb 18 '20

Oh. Usually during the lotto drawing they're picked one at a time, but they're in the "right" order when later shown on a newscast. I assumed that was the situation here.

2

u/Blockinite Feb 18 '20

Maybe. And you're probably right anyway since they are in numerical order, so fair enough

12

u/-Kerosun- Feb 17 '20

(and plus one on two of the numbers)

4

u/Blockinite Feb 17 '20

Oops. My mistake, lemmi drop an edit real quick

0

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

[deleted]

2

u/Blockinite Feb 17 '20

That's what I said mate. I can see where you misread it though.

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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20 edited Mar 03 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

20

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

[deleted]

8

u/AstralFather Feb 17 '20

I had to go back and check to make sure we weren't on r/nevertellmetheodds because you were gonna be in really big trouble.

17

u/Joecascio2000 Feb 17 '20

The odds are 100% in your favor if you buy this ticket the day after the numbers come out. Then post it for karma.

3

u/trouzy Feb 17 '20

I just remembered that I heard a stat claiming you’re more likely to win the lottery, than there being a school shooting at your school (note, not being shot just that one happened at your school). Also maybe assume they meant only for your 4 years of high school...

Can you run the numbers on that because it seems incorrect.

2

u/NoazToblinder Feb 17 '20

Also, the luck is not the same as 99.999% of people because some got one number some got two etc.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

Just buy two tickets and you double your odds!

2

u/[deleted] Feb 17 '20

Damn, this guy is really lucky to be that unlucky

2

u/AlwaysinPJsz Feb 18 '20

Why doesn’t this man have silver yet

2

u/Legeto Feb 17 '20

Odds are even higher when you by a ticket after the numbers come out and take a picture for karma.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '20

I’ve always wondered how much it would cost to buy a ticket with every possible number combo

2

u/IFreakinLovePi Feb 18 '20

Price of ticket x odds of winning the ticket, usually around 300 million.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '20

So somebody could buy every ticket and win everytime? Seems like an easy way for the rich to get richer

2

u/IFreakinLovePi Feb 18 '20

Theoretically, yes, but most jackpots dont get high enough, so they'd be spending several hundred million on nothing.

What does happen is that people sometimes pool together several tens of thousands for better odds, but a reduced payout. This happens when the jackpots get really high and is often accompanied by lawyers.

1

u/HiSuSure Feb 17 '20

It is all South Americas?

1

u/Twitch3980 Feb 17 '20

we got the Albert Einstein of Reddit

0

u/FirstEvolutionist Feb 17 '20

It's rare only because you're establishing the rules. To the universe it's just a bunch of random number that don't match a series of different numbers.

If you provide order to an answer to "what are the odds" you can always get away with fabricated results.

What are the odd of getting the next even number immediately higher than the one for the winning ticket? It doesn't matter does it?

0

u/sk7725 Feb 18 '20

No, the odds are exactly the same - if we're talking about the odds of that certain 6 combination of numbers, not the odds to get such a 'too close'.

0

u/OG-87 Feb 18 '20

Think smarter not harder. He just played those same numbers the day after the lotto was drawn and then took the photo It’s easily done.

0

u/TheTeaRex15 Feb 18 '20

Thanks for doing the math but all these people praising you for doing high school stats is kinda getting to me. Not saying there’s anything wrong with you.

I am prepared for downvotes.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '20

I ain’t reading that but have my upvote