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National Lottery?
#1
Ave

I received the following in an unsolicited e-mail this morning and thought you might find the contents to be of interest.

"Hello. I am working on learning how the combin function works, and what the results actually means. I actually got this example from a book but it didn't explain it very thoroughly. If there are 49 possible lottery numbers to choose from, and I can choose 6 if I buy a ticket, then my formula would be =combin(49,6) and the result is 13,983,816. The book I am working with leads me to interpret the result as follows: I would need to buy 13,983,816, choosing 6 numbers on each ticket, in order to exhaust all the possibile combinations, therefore eliminating any possibility of losing the lottery. Where I am getting confused (and it's probably just that I'm thinking about it backwards), is that if I reduce the number of choices from 6 down to 5, the resulting number drops from 13,983,816 to 1,906,884. So, I am interpreting this as follows: If I reduce the amount of numbers that I am able to choose per ticket, I would only have to purchase 1,906,884 tickets in order to exhaust all possibilities of losing the lottery. This is opposite of what I was expecting. So I am assuming I am not understanding the whole thing correctly. Any help is appreciated. Furthermore, if I can overcome this obstacle, my next question is, how to fit into the calculation, if a person were to purchase 2 tickets. Would this be as easy as doubling the choices from 6 to 12? Thanks again Scott "

What do you think?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo
[Image: spedius-mcmxliii.gif]
~~~~~~Jim Poulton~~~~~~
North London Wargames Group
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#2
Quote:What do you think?
Unsolicited? Spam. Don't reply. But then, I'm a cynic. :wink: There's no such thing as a free lunch.

How do you get your enemy to become your friend?; Ask them for help.

(I can be so suspicious at times :twisted: )
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#3
Who sends out unsolicited STATISTICS questions? That's the most offensive spam email I've ever heard of :lol: Fake 'your PayPal account has had some odd transactions so follow this link and log in' or 'my late husband has millions of dollars in a US bank that I need someone to gain access too' emails I can understand, but statistics questions? That's a new one. Wouldn't it be better to just find a stats website by some university professor somewhere and ask him/ her directly? Then again I suppose applying actual logic to this situation is not really the thing to do considering the situation :lol:
See FABRICA ROMANORVM Recreations in the Marketplace for custom helmets, armour, swords and more!
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#4
A lot of E-mail spam will ask for information, do you want… or if you want to be taken off… just click…

The point isn’t always what the message is about, a lot of times it’s just to have you click on it. Once you do, it reports back and, BAM, they have another valid E-Mail address that they can sell or add to the other spammers.
Steve
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#5
Quote:Ave

I received the following in an unsolicited e-mail this morning and thought you might find the contents to be of interest.

"Hello. I am working on learning how the combin function works, and what the results actually means. I actually got this example from a book but it didn't explain it very thoroughly. If there are 49 possible lottery numbers to choose from, and I can choose 6 if I buy a ticket, then my formula would be =combin(49,6) and the result is 13,983,816. The book I am working with leads me to interpret the result as follows: I would need to buy 13,983,816, choosing 6 numbers on each ticket, in order to exhaust all the possibile combinations, therefore eliminating any possibility of losing the lottery. Where I am getting confused (and it's probably just that I'm thinking about it backwards), is that if I reduce the number of choices from 6 down to 5, the resulting number drops from 13,983,816 to 1,906,884. So, I am interpreting this as follows: If I reduce the amount of numbers that I am able to choose per ticket, I would only have to purchase 1,906,884 tickets in order to exhaust all possibilities of losing the lottery. This is opposite of what I was expecting. So I am assuming I am not understanding the whole thing correctly. Any help is appreciated. Furthermore, if I can overcome this obstacle, my next question is, how to fit into the calculation, if a person were to purchase 2 tickets. Would this be as easy as doubling the choices from 6 to 12? Thanks again Scott "

What do you think?

Vale

M. Spedius Corbulo

Eventually you spend more on buying the tickets than you earn with the lottery ... nice way to rip off people's money :?
a.k.a. Daan Vanhamme
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