Lottery Numbers

[steleve]

How many possible 6 number combinations are there for the National Lottery?

[Horse]

13,983,816 to be exact. I need to get out more!

[edeb]

LOTS! That is why there is no strategy to the lottery. Some people think that by picking the numbers that other people do not (a process involving scientific analysis of statistics) they can increase the chance of winning big. The logic runs: I have the same chance as everyone else for picking the correct numbers. Therefore, if I win, the actual numbers will be irrelevant, inasmuch as I might win with any number. If I pick the numbers that other people pick, I will have to share the prize with them. Therefore, I must pick numbers picked by fewest people. However, the possible combinations are so many, that, although this does improve your statistical chance of winning more, should you happen to win, it will not make a material difference to the odds of your winning. This is why the lottery is a moron tax. You're better off not winning than winning at everyone else's expense- the thing only encourages greed of a degrading sort.

[c4scroller]

Hi, I've recalculated on Windows 2000's calculator, I find it to be 13841287201. This is calculated by raising the maximum number of one ball to the power of the number of balls in total. For example, if there are six balls, each which could be 1 to 49, we do 49 * 49 * 49 * 49 * 49 * 49 (notated properly, this is 49^6). A better lottery would be a three ball lottery, where each number could only be 1,2 or 3: 3^3 = 27 combinations. Not bad.