Are the lottery odds ever to your benefit? If you know the top prize, you need to use Excel to understand the lottery probability and discover if it's worth purchasing a ticket.
While the lottery isn't a "good bet" mathematically, there are times when it's better than others. In fact, there are actually times when the lottery odds are on your behalf. With Excel, one can possibly calculate lottery probability and determine exactly what your itrrrs likely that of winning. First, let's look at an example.
Problem: The Super Lotto jackpot is $8 million immediately. Should you play?
Image Credit: sxc.hu/upn
Strategy: It depends on how many numbers will be in the game. You need to determine the amount of possible combinations there are in the game. You can use the COMBIN function to figure out the quantity of combinations by selecting six numbers out of a group of 40.
1) Set up a spreadsheet with the amount of balls inside your lotto game in cell C2.
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2) Identify what number of numbers you need to website select correctly in cell D2.
3) Enter the formula =COMBIN(C2,D2) in cell E2, as shown in Fig. 451. (Click image for a larger view.)
If your state lottery game requires you to select six numbers from 40, then your odds against you winning are 3.83 million to 1. For a $1 bet plus an $8 million payout, the odds are on your side.
For a game title with 44 numbers, the itrrrs likely that 7 million to a single. This payoff is merely slightly on your behalf.
For games with 48 or 54 numbers, the payout just isn't worth the long odds of the sport.
Additional Information: COMBIN figures combinations. Here, the sequence the location where the balls are drawn in isn't relevant. If you had a game title where you had to fit both the numbers and also the order in which they were drawn, you would then want to use the PERMUT function to find the amount of permutations of drawing six numbers in sequence out of 40.
Summary: Use the COMBIN or PERMUT functions for figuring the amount of combinations or permutations.
Functions Discussed: =COMBIN(); =PERMUT()
Interested in learning more Excel tricks and techniques? Be sure to read through the a huge selection of other Excel tutorials and user guides available at Bright Hub, including the following collections.