Help me win the lottery!

[Bob Crabtree]

Every once in a while - quite rarely, actually - I do the national lottery and had done so on Saturday.

Mindful of our need for a new car (after the current one got totaled yesterday - no one hurt, thankfully), I remembered today to check and, of course, as usual, I had no winning numbers.

I did two lines - I seldom if ever do more - and have an uncanny ability to include within my total selection of 12 numbers none that are drawn, even if, as this weekend, I have no repeats.

Now, it stands to reason, if I keep on doing extra lines there will come a point when the only numbers I haven't chosen are the six winning numbers.



Trouble is, there are 49 numbers to choose from and six doesn't go evenly into 49, so could the statisticians among us please work out my best strategy?

I reckon that all I need to do is seven full lines (total 42) plus a discarded line with a single entry on it (total 43) and, bingo, the next line of six gets me the winners!

So that's an outlay of eight squids and I'm a millionaire.

Seems a reasonable sort of return to me.

Thoughts?

[yamangman]

Well since there are almost 14 million combinations of the 49 numbers, you'd need to spend rather a lot more to ensure a jackpot win. You'd need at least 4046 attempts to ensure a 3-number win.

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by yamangman

Well since there are almost 14 million combinations of the 49 numbers, you'd need to spend rather a lot more to ensure a jackpot win. You'd need at least 4046 attempts to ensure a 3-number win.

Sorry mate, I don't think you understand.

The numbers I select don't come up.

You're talking stats, I'm talking real life!

[UKMuFFiN]

So you just want a draw where at least one of your numbers comes up?

[Steve B]

i see where ur coming from, you want to use ur special powers to pick numbers that dont appear, until you've eliminated all the numbers except the to be chosen 6. This way, when you buy the final lottery ticket, all the numbers will be there.

Cunning!

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Steve B

i see where ur coming from, you want to use ur special powers to pick numbers that dont appear, until you've eliminated all the numbers except the to be chosen 6. This way, when you buy the final lottery ticket, all the numbers will be there.

Cunning!

Precisely!

As for "cunning", well, stupid, more like, but whenever I think about this strange negative gift of mine, I do think I really ought to exploit it!

[Nick]

The answer is simple.

Buy a lottery ticket and immediately throw it away.

THAT will be your winning ticket... all you have to do is rush back to where you lobbed it and sort through tons of noxious rubbish to find it...

But then, with the Euro Lottery running at 100 million, I'd happily dredge through a bin full of used nappies if I knew the winning ticket was in there...

[hitman67]

Originally Posted by Bob Crabtree

Is that the new 2007 Aerodynamic package for the Accord?

[UKMuFFiN]

Originally Posted by Nick

The answer is simple.

Buy a lottery ticket and immediately throw it away.

THAT will be your winning ticket... all you have to do is rush back to where you lobbed it and sort through tons of noxious rubbish to find it...

But then, with the Euro Lottery running at 100 million, I'd happily dredge through a bin full of used nappies if I knew the winning ticket was in there...

Ha ha I like it.

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Nick

The answer is simple.

Buy a lottery ticket and immediately throw it away.

THAT will be your winning ticket... all you have to do is rush back to where you lobbed it and sort through tons of noxious rubbish to find it...

But then, with the Euro Lottery running at 100 million, I'd happily dredge through a bin full of used nappies if I knew the winning ticket was in there...

Nick,

I just knew I'd be able to rely on your to bring a bit of commonsense to the thread!

Many thanks!

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by hitman67

Is that the new 2007 Aerodynamic package for the Accord?

Nah, that's the climate-control upgrade you're seeing.