Who’s the bigger sucker, a lottery player or a keno player?
Also while in Vegas, Greg and I were arguing over the relarive merits (or lack thereof) of playing keno and the lottery. There is an excellent website by Dr. Math that has all kinds of goodies on math in everyday life situations. The one dealing with combinations and permutations is partiuclarly relevant for this question. Both keno and regular
lotteries are examples of combinations, where the order does not matter (Powerball is a mix of combinations and permutations, since the powerball order does
matter). The formula is C(n,k)=n!/(k!(n-k)!), where n is the number of objects to choose from, and k is number chosen. For a lottery where you pick 6 numbers
out of 54, there are 54!/(6!(54-6)!) possible combinations, which is 54*53*53*51*50*49/(6*5*4*3*2), or a 1 in 25,827,165 chance of getting all six. In Keno,
picking 20 out of 80, there are 80!/(20!(80-20)!) combinations, which is 80*79*…*62*61/(20*19*…*2*1), or 3.535316142212174e+18. That’s more than 3.5
quintillion to 1! That’s how they make the buffets so cheap!
Month: February 2003
Top Sayings of 1987
While in Vegas this past weekend, I kept trying to remember the 5 phrases nominated for Top Saying of 1987, as determined by Late Night with David Letterman. I
could only remember four. Finally dug them up:
- Oh, Eleanor, guess who passed another stone?
- It’s funny — I hate the itching, but I don’t mind the swelling.
- And…it’s moist!
- I just escaped from a state institution.
- Nice tie, bonehead!
FYI, #2 was the winner, and #1 was the one I couldn’t recall.
Chirac: ‘New Europe’ Wrong, Childish
Ya know, I’m gettin’ a little tired of ‘France equals Europe” line of reasoning coming out of Paris. A quote:
Hello? They are agreeing with the UK, Spain, and several other EU members. There is no single EU policy on Iraq, and I personally doubt if the EU will ever
have a common foreign policy. But this kind of hubris is particularly ga(u)lling.
PS Best line of late: David Letterman – “The last time the French asked for more proof it arrived on the back of a German tank driven down the Champs-Elysee.”
This morning I spoke with Chris Reid of Meidawest Online who gave me further info on the Sapphire fiasco. Turns out the
Service Patch 2, which came out this past fall, several months after the stand-alone patch, did not contain the patch for Sapphire! How can a company release a
comprehensive patch that isn’t comprehensive?!?
In defense of Microsoft…kinda
A Korean civic rights group may soon file a class-action suit against Microsoft because they feel Redmond did not go far enough in it’s efforts to patch the hole
in its SQL Server that was exploited by the Sapphire worm recently. In defense of the beast, the hole was
discovered and a patch made available over a year ago. It is up to sysadmins to ensure that they keep there servers patched and secured. (I’ll not mention the
fact that if you’re using MS products in the first place you’re already asking for security problems.) Now, if they want to go after Bill & Co. over Microsoft’s
failure to secure their own servers, well, then, be my guest.