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Old 09-15-2002, 01:32 PM
Peter Peter is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 205
Default Re: What\'s The Chances of This One? 911 NY Drawing

Hey Igor,

indeed, if you roll a die six times and you bet that on the third roll the outcome will be three the probability of this is 1/6. Look at it this way: the first roll may be anything, just as the second, fourth, fifth and sixth. But the third roll must be a three. The probability for this is: 1*1*1/6*1*1*1=1/6.

So chances for the lottery to get 911 as outcome on any given day is 1/1000 (or in correct notation 1*1*1*...*1*1/1000*1*...*1=1/1000 with the 1's and dots representing the string of 1's corresponding to the dates that don't matter and the 1/1000 corresponding to the date you chose.)

Peter
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