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Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:19 am
by Tunnelcat

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:13 pm
by Isaac
tunnelcat wrote:Oh $#*T! Hmmmmmmm, DUCK!
Ahhh!!! GOOSE!


Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:48 pm
by flip
LOL, that's funny TC. That dog must have said something bad about his momma :P

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:19 am
by CUDA
Image

well do ya......PUNK!!!!!



:mrgreen:

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:50 pm
by Tunnelcat
I was waitin' for ya to say that CUDA. :mrgreen:

However, tomorrow's the expected day for re-entry. Somewhere between noon and 6 PM Eastern U.S. time, but it doesn't look like the U.S. will under that particular orbit path then. Watch out Europe and Africa. On a positive note, or is it negative, you have a better chance of getting hit by a piece of this satellite than winning the lottery. :P

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:31 pm
by sdfgeoff
And yet because the lottery happens more often, over the course of a lifetime you are more likely (Assuming you enter regularly) to win than to get hit by the satellite.

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:47 am
by Heretic
The odds of winning the lotto remains the same no matter how many times you play over a lifetime. I find it funny how much money is wasted in gambling. Each week you play the same numbers and each week the odds for that number to come up will remain constant. Such as the powerball to hit the jackpot is 1:80,089,128 Your odds of hitting said powerball will always be 1:80,089,128

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:54 am
by snoopy
Heretic wrote:The odds of winning the lotto remains the same no matter how many times you play over a lifetime. I find it funny how much money is wasted in gambling. Each week you play the same numbers and each week the odds for that number to come up will remain constant. Such as the powerball to hit the jackpot is 1:80,089,128 Your odds of hitting said powerball will always be 1:80,089,128
Actually, if I play twice on the same drawing, my odds to win on one of the two go to 2:80,089,128. If I play once every drawing, for N drawings, my odds of winning at least once is 1-(.999999987513911^N). In other words, I have a 90% chance of winning once if I play once in 190 million lotteries.

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:11 am
by Foil
Heretic wrote:The odds of winning the lotto remains the same no matter how many times you play over a lifetime.
This is incorrect.

To see this, let's consider your 1:80,089,128 powerball. Using a basic binomial distribution:

The odds of winning when played once:
~= 0.00000125%

The odds of winning when played 100 times (assuming independency, e.g. you're not picking the same numbers for the same powerball twice):
~= 0.000125%
Heretic wrote:I find it funny how much money is wasted in gambling.
Now that I will agree with! :D

One part of the problem is that people look at the odds, and say, "It's possible!". True, but what they should be looking at is the big picture, how much they are spending versus the probability of return. For example, the statistical 'expected value', which for gambling is *always* less than the amount spent.

[Snoopy's example above makes exactly the point. 90% odds of winning in 190 million tries sounds great! ...Until you compare the cost of 190million lottery tickets to the potential winnings. :P]

-----------

My approach: Every dollar I spend gambling (which I rarely do), I count it as paying for entertainment, and I expect exactly what the stats say: The money isn't coming back.

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:08 am
by snoopy
Foil you need to quit being such a nerd.



:P

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:12 am
by Foil
:P

Re: Do you feel lucky?

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:56 pm
by Tunnelcat
If it weren't for nerds, there would be no computers and ergo, no video games either. Hug a nerd today. :)

Back to the thread. More odds. Read both pages.

http://funny2.com/odds.htm

Lets see, NASA calculates the odds of getting hit by UARS as 1 in 3200, a bit lower than their preferable threshold of 1 in 10,000 (like that's any better).

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-201 ... pace-junk/

Track it here:

http://www.heavens-above.com/