Talk:Lottery mathematics

message: Good morning, I have only a basic college level course in statistics and probability, so it is not the equations in the article I am commenting on because the math is correct even if I think there is an easier way to explain it all, it is the explanation paragraph I think is not really correctly worded: 
"Starting with a bag of 49 differently-numbered lottery balls, there is clearly a 1 in 49 chance of predicting the number of the 1st ball out of the bag. Accordingly, there are 49 different ways of choosing that first number. When the draw comes to the second number, there are now only 48 balls left in the bag (because the balls already drawn are not returned to the bag), so there is now a 1 in 48 chance of predicting this number."
My suggestion is that if the numbers do not have to be picked in order, there is not "clearly a 1 in 49 chance" of predicting the first number, but actually a 6 in 49 chance of picking the first ball correctly There is a 5 in 48 chance of picking the second correctly and so on. Only in the case of the balls being required to be picked in order would each selection have a 1 in something chance. 49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/2 x 44/1   wspruce@msn.com
The 49/6 x 48/5 x 47/4 x 46/3 x 45/2 x 44/1 Yields the number of combinations available (13,983,816).  
I am planning on adding a column in the table 1/Probability because that is what is on most play slips.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.190.9.225 (talk) 15:03, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Wording

message: the link to the online probability calculator should be removed or changed. the quality of the calculator is quite low, with most of the powerball calculators not even reporting correct results.
Myqlarson (talk) 07:11, 9 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  External link quality 

message: This aricle and the at least one of the references incorrectly assume that lotto numbers are not ordered.  After being drawn, the numbers are put in order and therefore change the odds on each number slot!  A statistical analysis of the lotto numbers drawn from any state lotto over the last 30 years shows a clear gausian for each 'slot'
ACorbs (talk) 14:07, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Incorrect assumption

message: Hello. The portion "The numerator equates to the number of ways one can select the winning numbers multiplied by the number of ways one can select the losing numbers" needs possibly a bit explaining as to why a multiplication is needed (compare the above action when calculating the probabilities).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.202.31.226 (talk) 13:56, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Explanation needed

message: Would be nice if http://lottery.merseyworld.com/Info/Chances.html could be linked in as it shows the working based on every ticket possible being purchased just makes it easier for people to understand i think  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.29.180.115 (talk) 17:49, 13 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Possible link

message: In: "An alternative method of calculating the odds is to never make the erroneous assumption that balls must be selected in a certain order. The odds of the first ball corresponding to one of the six chosen is 6/49; the odds of the second ball corresponding to one of the remaining five chosen is 5/48; and so on. This yields a final formula of...", the formula uses recipricals of the 6/49, 5/48, etc. This might be confusing to some. Maybe there is a way to bridge that. The combination number gives the number of possibilities but people want to know the odds, which is the reciprical of combination, right? Otherwise, what a great article, I wish textbooks were this clear. 71.139.178.219 (talk) 16:42, 19 May 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: I believe the article itself is incorrect; 6/49 is a probability and its equivalent odd would be 43 to 6 against (or other wording variations to that effect.) I've not heard of odds being referred to as the reciprocal of odds before and I don't think it's true for the general case, although I'd be willing to fold if somebody corrects me. I doubt I've fully answered yuor question but if you get back to me with a little clarification on what exactly is difficult then I'm more than happy to try again :) JaeDyWolf ~ Baka-San (talk) 16:33, 20 May 2013 (UTC)

text: I have since made a simple correction, calling those values probabilities, and I think I've seen where you're coming from. For the case of matching all six numbers, there is only one combination out of COMBIN(49,6) where all six match. That would make the probability of matching all six numbers the reciprocal of the number of combinations. Does that help? JaeDyWolf ~ Baka-San (talk) 16:43, 20 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reciprocal of combination. 

message: I removed a large paragraph from the lead paragraph. With some copyediting, it could be put back in. Iamaplayer33 (talk) 20:53, 9 January 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead changes 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Lottery mathematics. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070713083148/http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/ to http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 07:31, 26 May 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Lottery mathematics. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20161021061707/http://trillioncoins.com/ to http://trillioncoins.com/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 16:43, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified