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Probability Analysis that you will have a "Bingo" after "N" numbers have been called.

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Pre-Algebra giving you a hard time? Shmoopâ€™s free Basic Geometry Guide has all the explanations, examples, and exercises youâ€™ve been craving.

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There are many geometric figures to consider, and in fact we can go in a long divergent path into a full course on geometry on these topics. We will not do that here since this is only a set of quick review pages for the math and geomtery that is useful to know when studying astronomy.

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About the Author

Dez has been a mathematician since grade school and has a master's degree in Applied Mathematics.

As a mathematician, I have never purchased a lottery ticket. I find the odds depressing and have never had luck in winning anything from these kinds of games.

This hub is all about calculating lottery probability or odds. In order to make it more relevant to me, I decided to base it on the Grandlotto 6/55, the lottery game with the biggest prize money here in the Philippines. There will be two different cases discussed in the hub: the probability of winning the game with all six numbers matching, and the probability of having n numbers matching.

Rules of the Lottery Game

It is always important to find out the rules of any game before participating in it. For the Grandlotto 6/55, in order to win the jackpot prize, you have to match six numbers from a pool of 55 numbers ranging from 1-55. The initial payout is a minimum of P20 (or around $0.47). It is also possible to win some money if you are able to match three, four, or five numbers of the winning combination. Note that the order of the winning combination here does not matter.

Here is a table for the prizes you can obtain:

Some Probability Concepts

Before we start with the calculations, I would like to talk about Permutations and Combinations. This is one of the basic concepts you learn in Probability Theory. The main difference being that permutations consider order to be important, while in combinations, order isn't important.

In a lottery ticket, permutation should be used if the numbers in your ticket have to match the order of the draw for the winning string of numbers. In the Grandlotto 6/55, order is not important because so long as you have the winning set of numbers, you can win the prize.

The next formulas only apply for numbers without repetition. This means that if the number x is drawn, it cannot be drawn again. If the number drawn from the set is returned before the next draw, then that has repetition.

, where n! = n * (n - 1) * (n - 2) * ... * 3 * 2 * 1.

Note that based on the formulas given, C(n,k) is always less than or equal to P(n,k). You will see later on why it is important to make this distinction for calculating lottery odds or probability.

How to Calculate Lottery Probability for 6 Matching Numbers

So now that we know the basic concepts of permutations and combinations, let us go back to the example of Grandlotto 6/55. For the game, n = 55, the total number of possible choices. k = 6, the number of choices we can make. Because order is not important, we will use the formula for combination:

These are the odds or the total number of possible combinations for any 6-digit number to win the game. To find the probability, just divide 1 by the number above, and you will get: 0.0000000344 or 0.00000344%. See what I mean by depressing odds?

So what if we're talking about a different lottery game where order does matter. We will now use the permutation formula to get the following:

Compare these two results and you will see that the odds for getting the winning combination where order matters has 3 additional zero's! It's going from about 28 million:1 odds to 20 billion:1 odds! The probability of winning for this case is 1 divided by the odds which equals to 0.0000000000479 or 0.00000000479%.

As you can see, because the permutation is always greater than or equal to the combination, the probability of winning a game where order matters is always less than or equal to the probability of winning a game where order does not matter. Because the risk is greater for games where order is required, this implies that the reward must also be higher.

How to Calculate Lottery Probability with Less Than 6 Matching Numbers

Because you can also win prizes if you have less than 6 matching numbers, this section will show you how to calculate the probability if there are x matches to the winning set of numbers.

First, we need to find the number of way to choose x winning numbers from the set and multiply it by the number of ways to choose the losing numbers for the remaining 6-x numbers. Consider the number of ways to choose x winning numbers. Because there are only 6 possible winning numbers, in essence, we are only choosing x from a pool of 6. And so, because order does not matter, we get C(6, x).

Next, we consider the number of ways to choose the remaining 6-x balls from the pool of losing numbers. Because 6 are winning numbers, we have 55 - 6 = 49 balls to choose the losing numbers from. So, the number of possibilities for choosing a losing ball can be obtained from C(49, 6 - x). Again, order does not matter here.

So, in order to calculate the probability of winning with x matching numbers out of a possible 6, we need to divide the outcome from the previous two paragraphs by the total number of possibilities to win with all 6 matching numbers. We get:

If we write this in a more general form, we get:

, where n = total number of balls in the set, k = total number of balls in the winning combination for the jackpot prize, and x = total numbers of balls matching the winning set of numbers.

If we use this formula to calculate the probability (and the odds) of winning the Grandlotto 6/55 with only x matching numbers, we get the following:

How to Choose the Winning Numbers in Lottery

As you can see from the math in this hub, the probability of winning the lottery is the same for any 6-number combination available in the Grandlotto 6/55 game. This is also applicable for other lottery games out there.

As I was researching for this hub, I came across links that said never choose numbers that are sequential, like from 1-6 or some such nonsense. There is no such secret to winning the lottery! Each number is as equally likely to come up in the draw as the next number.

If you are willing to face the very little probability of winning the lottery, I say go choose any number you want. You can base it on your birthdays, special days, anniversaries, lucky numbers, etc. Just remember that with great risk comes great reward!

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This hub is all about calculating lottery probability or odds. In order to make it relevant, I decided to base it on the Grandlotto 6/55, the lottery game with the biggest prize money here in the Philippines.

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Many events can't be predicted with total certainty. The best we can say is how likely they are to happen, using the idea of probability.

Tossing a Coin

When a coin is tossed, there are two possible outcomes:

Heads (H) or
Tails (T)

Also:

the probability of the coin landing H is ½

the probability of the coin landing T is ½

Throwing Dice

When a single die is thrown, there are six possible outcomes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

The probability of any one of them is

Probability

In general:

Probability of an event happening = Number of ways it can happen Total number of outcomes

Example: the chances of rolling a "4" with a die

Number of ways it can happen: 1 (there is only 1 face with a "4" on it)

Total number of outcomes: 6 (there are 6 faces altogether)

Example: there are 5 marbles in a bag: 4 are blue, and 1 is red. What is the probability that a blue marble gets picked?

Number of ways it can happen: 4 (there are 4 blues)

Total number of outcomes: 5 (there are 5 marbles in total)

Probability Line

We can show probability on a Probability Line:

Probability is always between 0 and 1

Probability is Just a Guide

Probability does not tell us exactly what will happen, it is just a guide

Example: toss a coin 100 times, how many Heads will come up?

Probability says that heads have a ½ chance, so we can expect 50 Heads.

But when we actually try it we might get 48 heads, or 55 heads ... or anything really, but in most cases it will be a number near 50.

Learn more at Probability Index.

Words

Some words have special meaning in Probability:

Experiment: a repeatable procedure with a set of possible results.

Example: Throwing dice

We can throw the dice again and again, so it is repeatable.

The set of possible results from any single throw is {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6}

Outcome: A possible result.

Example: "6" is one of the outcomes of a throw of a die.

Trial: A single performance of an experiment.

Example: I conducted a coin toss experiment. After 4 trials I got these results:

Three trials had the outcome "Head", and one trial had the outcome "Tail"

Sample Space: all the possible outcomes of an experiment.

Example: choosing a card from a deck

There are 52 cards in a deck (not including Jokers)

So the Sample Space is all 52 possible cards: {Ace of Hearts, 2 of Hearts, etc... }

The Sample Space is made up of Sample Points:

Sample Point: just one of the possible outcomes

Example: Deck of Cards

the 5 of Clubs is a sample point

the King of Hearts is a sample point

"King" is not a sample point. There are 4 Kings, so that is 4 different sample points.

Example: Throwing dice

There are 6 different sample points in that sample space.

Event: one or more outcomes of an experiment

Example Events:

An event can be just one outcome:

Getting a Tail when tossing a coin

Rolling a "5"

An event can include more than one outcome:

Choosing a "King" from a deck of cards (any of the 4 Kings)

Rolling an "even number" (2, 4 or 6)

Hey, let's use those words, so you get used to them:

Example: Alex wants to see how many times a "double" comes up when throwing 2 dice.

The Sample Space is all possible Outcomes (36 Sample Points):

The Event Alex is looking for is a "double", where both dice have the same number. It is made up of these 6 Sample Points:

{1,1} {2,2} {3,3} {4,4} {5,5} and {6,6}

These are Alex's Results:

After 100 Trials, Alex has 19 "double" Events ... is that close to what you would expect?

700, 701, 702, 1475, 1476, 1477, 2175, 2176, 2177, 2178

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Math explained in easy language, plus puzzles, games, quizzes, worksheets and a forum. For K-12 kids, teachers and parents.