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I feel dumb. I'm assuming I'm just missing something obvious. In Powerball, you pick 5 numbers ranging from 1-53 and one "Powerball" ranging from 1-42. If you get them all right, you win. Shouldn't the odds of winning be 1 in 53*52*51*50*49*42 ~ 14,463,212,400?
According to their website, it's
1 in 120,526,770.00
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Dont use permutations. Use combinational probability since order does not matter.
C(53,5) * 42 = 120,526,770
which is (53!/5!48!) * 42
or simplied [ (53*52*51*50*49)/(5*4*3*2) ] * 42
= 120,526,770
This is assuming the Powerball number can be a duplicate of one of the regular 5 I believe.