The Statistics Behind the Lottery

As Australians gear up for the biggest lottery of all time, Dr David Warton of UNSW's School of Mathematics and Statistics has already crunched the numbers, and the results are not as encouraging as most Australians would want them to be.

"The chance of winning from a game of Oz Lotto is about one in 45 million," states Dr Warton.

"To get a sense of how small that it, consider what would happen if I dumped two reams (1000 pages) of A4 paper onto every seat at the Sydney Cricket Ground and asked you to take a guess at which is the one 'winning' page out of the four truckloads of paper that I have scattered all around the SCG.

"What you have there is about a one in 45 million chance of winning -- and an awful mess.

"If I forgot where the winning page was and had to check each page individually to find it, it would probably take me over three years (closer to two years if I worked weekends)."

For more information, please see:

The Daily Telegraph

or

Science@UNSW

Good luck

Comments :

3 comments to “The Statistics Behind the Lottery”

Anonymous said...
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Dr. David Warton of UNSW's Department of Mathematics and Statistics has already done the calculations as Australians prepare for the biggest lottery of all time, and the findings are not as positive as most Australians would like.

Thomas said...
on 

As Australians get ready for the biggest lottery in history, Dr. David Warton of UNSW's Department of Mathematics and Statistics has already done the calculations. The results are not as encouraging as most Australians would like.


jhoni said...
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Mathematics is the study of numbers, quantities, shapes, and patterns. It involves logic, reasoning, and problem-solving skills to understand mathematical concepts and their applications in various fields. Mathematics encompasses areas such as algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and more, playing a crucial role in science, engineering, finance, and everyday life.





 

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