Lottery mathematics Lottery mathematics Lottery mathematics is used to calculate probabilities of winning or losing a lottery game. It is based heavily on combinatorics, particularly the twelvefold way and combinations without replacement. In a typical 6/49 game, each player chooses six distinct numbers from a range of 1-49. If the six numbers on a ticket match the numbers drawn by the lottery, the ticket holder is a jackpot winner—regardless of the order of the numbers. The probability of this happening is 1 in 13,983,816. The chance of winning can be demonstrated as follows: The first number drawn has a 1 in 49
Lottery paradox rational to accept for any individual ticket "i" of the lottery that ticket "i" will not win. However, accepting that ticket 1 will not win, accepting that ticket 2 will not win, and so on until accepting that ticket 1000 will not win entails that it is rational to accept that "no" ticket will win, which entails that it is rational to accept the contradictory proposition that one ticket wins and no ticket wins. The lottery paradox was designed to demonstrate that three attractive principles governing rational acceptance lead to contradiction, namely that The paradox remains of continuing interest because