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  • Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 28. 2005 11:31

battery
I am sick of people speculating what the chance of winning the NF lottery. So may I
make a post that ends all posts. Mod, please sticky this so that people will stop
asking what's the chance, what's the chance.

We have to pick 6 numbers out of 45, so the probability of winning for each ticket is:
1 out of ( 45 choose 6 ) = 1 / 8145060

Let's say everyone in the community participate in lottery, and we made
arrangements so that no two persons pick the same set of numbers (This maximizes
the chance of us winning). Assuming 5000 participants, and each can buy three
tickets. The chance of a win for each lottery game is (5000 * 3 ) / 8145060

Let'e say TeamNF runs a lottery each week. The chance of no one winning within 3
years is: [1 - (5000 * 3 ) / 8145060] ^ ( 52 * 3 ) = 75%
** Here, I assumed that the result of each lottery is independent of the results of
other lottery games. This is a valid assumption unless TeamNF cheats the lottery.
Also, there are 52 weeks in a year.

The expected time to the first win is given by 1/p, where p is probability of each
success. Please refer to the chapter on Bernoulli process in any statistics textbook.
** As calculated before. The chance of someone winning in any given lottery game is
(5000 * 3 ) / 8145060. So p = (5000 * 3 ) / 8145060

Expected time to a win = 8145060 / (5000*3) games = 543 games = 10.4 years.
** expected time to a win = average time to a win

The expected payout is then 543 * 10 vets = 5430 vets, and a shit-load of credits.

In conclusion, no one is expected to win within 10 years. By the time someone wins,
the prize is so huge that TeamNF is not expected to honor the deal anyway.

TeamNF either has to cheat the lottery to make someone win, or.....
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  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 30. 2005 08:16

battery
bumped because i saw someone started a new thread regarding our chances in NF
lottery. Discuss our chances in NF lottery here please.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 16:47

stoendben333
wowzors but it is still better to buy a ticket u aint going to use points much

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 16:12

battery
Chill.

Pre-calc teaches mostly vectors and vector space. Quite useful stuff. And once you
can visualize vectors in your head you are gonna ace the class. They may also go
into matrice and complex numbers.

So rest assured. You don't have to give up Navy Field for school.

Chances are you won't be forced to learn probability or random processes, unless
you plan to become a scientist, engineer, or applied mathematician.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 16:01

crimsondeath
*_* sh!t... i have pre calc this year.... is this what i have to do?... damn it...hey
anyone wanna be my tutor, ill let you use my hosho...or mog cv... lol

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 13:13

battery
Even though the chance of winning the lottery is more remote than remote, it's
actually more profitable to still play. Where are you going to spend all those forum
points? (Now we are switching from high school math to high school economics)

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 13:09

Rehor
Your explanation satisfies me.

Thanks for making me flashback to 10th grade pre-calculus.

I won't be playing the lottery.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 13:06

battery
The permutation/combination part of the calculation is 11th-grade material in
California high schools.

The only thing that requires more than high school math is the calculation of
expected time to first win = 1 / p . I can either show you the proof or direct you to a
website if you are interested.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 13:00

enwhyoo
Battery, that is the best logically deduced arguement against the lottery. Awesome job.
And damn you are a lot better at Stats than I am. >.< If you've taken the Stats AP (given
you're in the US and chose AP instead of IB) I'm sure you scored a 5.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 12:45

siriusprime
May be there should be a "random select" option, where the system choose four
numbers for you.

Then again why don't we just make the lottery a "pick one in ten" numbers, that
should make everyone a winner.

  • Re : Our chances in NF lottery: a post that ends all posts

    10. 29. 2005 12:35

battery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinations

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Combination.html

In lottery, you draw 6 numbers from the bag without putting the numbers back in.
The winning ticket only needs to contain the 6 winning numbers. The order in which
the winning numbers are drawn from the bag does not matter.

(45*44*43*42*41*40) = 45!/39! = permutation of drawing 6 numbers out of 45.
You use 1/(45*44*43*42*41*40) when order matters.


1 / (45^6) = chance of any particular sequence coming up, in the case where we
draw a number from the bag, record it, put it back in the bag, and draw again. Here,
order matters.

45!/ ( 6! * 39! ) = 8145060 = combination of drawing 6 numbers out of 45. Ordering
of those 6 numbers do not matter. 1 / 8145060 = chance of winning for each ticket.
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